Brainwave
by Dracannia
Summary: A Mini-con that can't transform is sent to Earth with his Creator, Perceptor, to find out information about the third planet from the sun. He is seperated and finds a young girl named Jaeda and somehow has feelings towards her...
1. Brainwave Online

**I own nothing of Transformers. The human characters are mine, and Brainwave's the only made up TF (unless I didn't know there was already a Brainwave O_O)**

Chapter I

**Everything** **was black. He could hear movement from **outside, but was too afraid to look. In the thirty minutes he was conscious, he was ordered to see.

"Brainwave, online," said a voice. The newly created robot forced his optics open, despite his fears. He saw before him the face of his Creator, the Cybertronian scientist who called himself Perceptor. He was at least four times the size of…well, whoever the Mini-con was.

"Who are you?" the Mini-con managed to say. Perceptor smiled.

"My name is Perceptor, and I'm the one who brought you in this world, so to speak," he replied. The Mini-con looked at himself. His hands, feet, and chest were attached to wires. He grabbed one to try and yank it out of his system, but Perceptor stopped him.

"I wouldn't. These wires are the only thing keeping you online for now." The Mini-con let go of the cord without removing his gaze from Perceptor.

He said slowly, "Who…am…I?"

"Your name is Brainwave, my Mini-con partner. Welcome to Cybertron."

After a few hours of questioning and answering, Brainwave was finally relieved of the cords that were surging power through his body. With each cord that was pulled out, it left a hole behind it. The holes, individually, on his hands, his chest, and his feet were in the shape of a triangle.

"Come on, Brainwave. Let's meet the rest," Perceptor whispered. He walked into a large room with Brainwave following closer than necessary. The room was filled with other Mini-cons. They greeted Brainwave warmly and nearly every one of them asked him to transform. Each time they asked that, Brainwave understood less and less of what they had meant.

Perceptor then explained to all of them that Brainwave did not _have_ a vehicle mode. That was the only flaw in his system. But Brainwave didn't seem to mind. He liked being different from the rest.

Later, Brainwave had met nearly every single Mini-con in that room. They all gave their names, vehicle mode, even their Cybertronian partner's name. Brainwave came to the conclusion that these Mini-cons were used mostly for assistance and tools. Was that all he was to Perceptor? When he dared to ask his partner the question, Perceptor burst out laughing.

"We _never_ think of Mini-cons as tools! When a Mini-con and Cybertronian are matched, they are supposed to become friends. Unlike what the Decepticons have done," Perceptor explained. The word "Decepticon" hit Brainwave hard, like he was shot at one of his triangular power points in his chest. Perceptor saw this reaction and started to explain the Great War between the Autobots and the Decepticons, both sides fighting over the same object they called the All Spark. Apparently, whoever controlled the All Spark controlled Cybertron as well. And possibly the universe!

"Are they gone now?" Brainwave had hoped to never in his life cycle meet a Decepticon.

"We're not sure. Some might have escaped. But I assure you, if any Decepticons comes within fifty miles of Iacon City, we'll be ready for them," Perceptor said with a gleam in his eyes.

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This is my first time uploading a story, and I don't have a very good critic here at the house (my sister). So I hope everyone else who reads this is better than her X3 Hope you like it!


	2. Jaeda

Chapter II

"**Jaeda**! **Get your lazy butt out of bed this instant! You're **going to be late!" her mom, Emily shouted from the downstairs kitchen. Jaeda slowly rose out of bed and answered back.

"But I'm always on time," she moaned.

"Sure, it's the rest of the world that's _early_," her mom said sarcastically. Jaeda felt herself fall back into her pillow, wishing she could just stay there. But knowing that her dad might come up any time soon, she got out of bed (more like fell, really) and dragged her feet to her mirror to take a look at herself. Through her weary eyes, she could she an extremely bad case of morning hair she had ever seen. She was probably flopping in her bed like a flounder again, dreaming of something, and now she has forgotten it, as always.

She got herself ready for school, backpack was ready and her clothes were on (it was a miracle she could even get dressed that fast, how tired she was). Jaeda skipped a few steps while coming down the stairs to get to her breakfast more quickly. When she got downstairs she saw Mariah, her older brother's girlfriend sitting on the couch. They weren't surprised to see each other; Mariah came often in the morning, knowing Jaeda's brother, Michael (Mike or Mikey) she saw Mariah a lot. Hard fact was Jaeda didn't like her brother's girlfriend very much; she knew a tramp when she saw one.

_I'll give it three weeks, then they'll be broken up because Mariah will have already found a new "playmate"_, Jaeda thought. That was usually the deal with her brother. He would find the hottest looking girl he could, go out with her a few times, the girl finds a new boyfriend, and then dumps Mike right on the spot.

But just to be polite, Jaeda smiled and said "Hey, Mariah! Good to see you." _When are you going to dump my brother?_ She wanted to ask, just to be dramatic. But her mom always told her "If you can't say something nice, don't say it." _But what if a guy likes me, I don't like him, then he confesses to me? What do I say to him then? _was always her thought.

"It's good to see you too, Jaeda," Mariah said in a happy tone. Jaeda knew she was lying. She could see that through her bright white smile. Those teeth probably weren't even real, as well as some other body parts that popped in her mind.

Mike ran in with his backpack slung over one shoulder. He was at least six feet tall, black hair (he liked to keep it greasy--nasty boy), and wore dark clothes just to match. Whatever girls had seen in her brother, Jaeda will never know.

"Hey, sis," he said, rubbing his hand on her head, messing it up again. While Jaeda tried to straighten it out again, Mike said "Better find something else to eat; I ate the last of the pancakes." He ran out the door, with Mariah, knowing what was going to happen. He knew that pancakes where Jaeda's favorite breakfast and Emily had always made enough for everyone to eat.

"You PIG!" Jaeda screamed. She took a slipper from her foot and threw it at her brother. It hit the car window as he and Mariah climbed into his Mustang and drove off.

"Don't worry Jaeda," said her dad, George, from the living room. "Your mom made extras, knowing that Michael would eat your share." Jaeda skipped over to her mom, in the kitchen, and kissed her on the cheek while she was still having her toast.

"Thanks, Mom," said Jaeda as she grabbed her plate and started looking for the extra pancakes.

"They're in the stove, so your brother couldn't find them," her Mom said without looking, and continued to eat her toast as she picked up the newspaper and started to read the comics, like she was a little kid again.

Jaeda gulped down her pancakes in five minutes, had a few sips of milk, and rushed to the bathroom to brush her teeth. She did it as fast as she could, but when she came back into the living room, her father did a captain's inspection on her front teeth. She went back to the bathroom about six or seven times until she had finally gotten all of the food scraped off.

"Now, get your stuff and get in the car, we're late as it is," said George, pulling on his jacket. Jaeda snatched her twenty-pound backpack off the couch and followed her dad to the car.

xXx

It was an hour's drive to Nickerson High School. The whole way Jaeda was wondering if her friend Tara was standing at the waiting zone in front of the school, getting impatient for her to show up. It was the exact opposite when George had dropped off Jaeda. When Jaeda got out of the car, her friend came running to her, telling her about what happened to the popular girl, Cindy, and how she was just dumped by the hottest senior boy at the school.

"Have a good day, Jaeda!" George called to her. "Don't let any boys touch you, not even Carter."

Carter was an old friend of Jaeda's. He was a charming, funny, and childish sort of guy, but lots of fun to be around. She and Carter had known each other since they were both just a year old.

As for Tara, Jaeda has only known her since the beginning of the school year. She was a good friend, though. Never told a lie, but she liked juicy gossip, and she loved to hang out with her friends every Saturday, if they didn't have plans.

"Okay, Dad, I won't. I swear," Jaeda promised to her dad.

"You don't _swear_, Jaeda," George mumbled, and drove of to work; to the lab downtown, he was an astronomer. He was trusted with studying the fossils found on Mars and see if there was life. The board didn't want any more guesses, they wanted facts now.

"Hey, pretty lady," said a voice. Jaeda and Tara turned to see who it was. As soon as they saw his face, Tara had frowned and Jaeda glared at him. It was none other than the players of the school, Kenneth (Kenny) Rogers and his friend, Jamal Malcolm, Jr. Both of them were complete idiots to Jaeda and Tara. Kenny liked Jaeda; Jamal liked Tara.

"Leave us alone, guys," said Tara. Kenny smiled and said, "I wasn't talking to you." He walked over to Jaeda and put his arm around her waist, pulling her towards his chest. Jaeda kept her hands at her side and stared up at him, not in loving way, but more of what a snake looks like when it's about to have its next entrée.

"I know you like me, Jaeda," he said with a sly smile. Jaeda kept glaring at him, hoping a stare down would back him away from her body.

"For the millionth time, Mr. Looks-At-Playboy-Magazine-During-Free-Time, I'm not into you, and never will be!" Jaeda moved her right hand to push her away from this creep. Kenny looked at her, with the smile still on his face.

"Come on," he said, moving towards Jaeda. "Don't be like that." He moved close enough for him to kiss her.

"No!" Jaeda screamed.

"Hey!" said another voice. Kenny stopped what he was doing, still holding Jaeda, and looked at the owner of the voice. Jaeda looked too and was glad to see Carter. "Everything okay here, Jaeda?"

Kenny released his grip on Jaeda and stared at Carter, thinking it would scare him away. Knowing Carter, Jaeda knew he'd never back down if he tried to save her. Finally, Kenny gave up and walked away, telling Jamal to come on. Jamal hugged Tara from behind as she struggled to get free.

"Back off, ape!" she screamed.

"Later, baby," he said, let go of Tara, and followed his friend to some other area of the waiting zone.

"Ooh!" Tara groaned. "That boy makes me so mad!" Jaeda took a quick glance at her and imagined steam coming out of her ears. It was a possibility that it could've happened.

Carter came over to join his friends in the rage of hating the players of Nickerson.

"You two okay?" he repeated. Jaeda and Tara forgot about the boys who tried to kiss them and went over to group hug on Carter.

"Thanks, C.," said Jaeda.

"Yeah, what could we do without you, man?" Tara said happily.

The bell rang for them to get inside the building, grab their things out of their lockers, and go to class (and with what the vice principal says "if you have extra time and need to go to the restroom, go now, 'cause you ain't goin' until lunch" ).

The first class Jaeda had was with Tara and that was science, the most boring and most difficult subject any high school student could think of, next to Geometry and Calculus.

"All right, class. The bell will ring in four minutes, and I expect you to be in your seats by then," said Ms. Abercrombie as she walked into the room. "For now, you can wander and talk to your friends." Ms. Abercrombie was a nice teacher in Jaeda's opinion, it was just the _teaching_ she hated.

Four minutes had flown by and every one was in their seats, but most were still talking about how cute the new quarter-back looked or how their girlfriend wanted to go to some place special on Friday.

"All right, that's enough," Ms. Abercrombie shouted. "I have something to tell you all." The class quieted down. "Now, this permission slip I'm going to give you is not mandatory, only optional. It's to go to the museum in New York City. Though if you choose not to go, it will be like you missed a day's work on science notes. Not to mention the chance of getting out of your other classes." The room laughed softly at the joke. She started to pass around green slips that gave out what was needed for the trip. When the class received their papers, Tara leaned across the aisle and whispered, "You goin'?"

Jaeda nodded. "Yeah. And who knows, it might actually be fun."

"Come on," Carter said turning around in his seat to join the conversation. "A science field trip, _fun_? Get real, guys."

xXx

Author's Note: Well, Carter, you could be _very _wrong...3 Anyone notice Jamal's name? There's a guy out there; Malcolm-Jamal, Jr. You know, the guy who plays Theo on _The Cosby Show_.


	3. To Earth

Chapter III

"**Perceptor! You won't believe it!" said Hot Shot, coming **running up the hall. Perceptor, with Brainwave sitting on his shoulder, turned around to look at him with a puzzled expression.

"What's so important, Hot Shot? I need to get going on some research, now what do you need?" said Perceptor. Brainwave could tell that in his voice, he was getting irritated with interruptions.

"Trust me, Perceptor. This is the best research you are _ever _going to do as long as you're still functioning," Hot Shot said breathless but happily. Perceptor's optics turned huge.

"Lay it on me," he said. Hot Shot took Perceptor and Brainwave to the control room. Brainwave looked around at all the Cybertronians and their Mini-con partners at work. The Cybertronians were searching around computers for information and other data while the Min-cons had pointed at something on the screen that they had not seen before.

"Prime, sir, I brought Perceptor, as you commanded," said Hot Shot, breaking Brainwave's concentration. He looked ahead and saw a red robot with a gray face mask, covering his mouth, standing on a small platform in the center of the room.

"Good work, Hot Shot. You may return to your post," said the red robot. Brainwave still wasn't so sure if he had said it because the Cybertronian's face didn't seem to move at all.

"Optimus Prime, you call for me?" said Perceptor.

"Yes, I did," he answered. "Blurr and his Mini-con, Incarcerator, have detected another solar system that has not yet been discovered."

"Another system?" Perceptor's face lit up. Brainwave tried to listen closely to all of this. If his master meant "another" system, would that mean that there's more than one out there? If there were, how many?

"Yes, and I'm trusting you and Brainwave to research. This might be a little difficult though. Eight out of the nine planets are uninhabited. The third planet from its giant star is the one planet that still has sustainable life. I want you two to research everything you can. Report back to me in one stellar cycle, and we'll see if further research needs to be done," Optimus explained. "Do you understand, Perceptor?"

"Sir, yes, sir!" Perceptor saluted. Brainwave thought that was a strange way to say that.

"And you, Brainwave?" said Optimus.

Brainwave stared blankly at Optimus. He felt like such a fool; standing in front of the most powerful Cybertronian in the world and not doing anything to respond.

"You'll have to excuse him, sir. He's been online for at least two auto-cycles and he's still learning a bit," Perceptor confessed. Optimus nodded his head.

"That's quite all right," he said. "I'm sorry, but by now, other Mini-cons would've learned everything they need to know on Cybertron. What…uh…?"

Brainwave could tell Optimus was trying not to be insulting. But he could still hear it in his voice.

"I'm not sure, sir. But he will understand in time," Perceptor announced.

"In time," Optimus repeated. He changed the subject. "All right, then. Report to the loading zone and I will have you on a ship, ready for launch."

"Yes, sir!"

"Dismissed." Perceptor marched off towards the loading dock. Brainwave still felt curious.

"Preceptor, how many solar systems are out there?"

"As far as Cybertron intel knows, about twenty-four. This new one makes twenty-five." Brainwave nodded his head in understanding. For the rest of the time period, he did not speak.



The ship wasn't very impressive, even to Brainwave. It was sort of small, but Perceptor said that they couldn't risk being noticed. Who knows what kind of technology the life forms in the new system might have? They could be thousands of years ahead of Cybertron, or they might be some time behind but still able to detect them. Maybe, Brainwave thought, the life forms just now appeared on that planet.

They got inside and prepared for their launch. Perceptor strapped himself and Brainwave in place, so they wouldn't fall into the backside of the ship. The countdown began. To Brainwave, it felt like a millennia had passed since Optimus had given them orders to take off. When they finally reached down to zero, Brainwave heard the deafening roar of the rockets as they burst to life and forced them upward, out of Cybertron's atmosphere.



Hours had passed, and Brainwave and Perceptor were finally closing in on the new star system.

"This is it, Brainwave!" he said, getting overly excited. "Just think what kind of data might this planet have to offer us! All right, Prime said it was the third planet from the giant star, and… there!" He pointed to a planet outside of the shielded windows. The planet was in colors of green, white, brown, and mostly blue. "There's our planet Brainwave! Let's see what we can get from here."

With the high tech equipment Cybertronians had, it was easy finding signal to latch on to. "I got something. The life on this planet call it… Ah, I can't read it. It's a different language than what we have. Let me look again." Brainwave stared at his master as he looked through all kinds of different sites. Each one seemed to amaze Perceptor even more.

"Great Primus! There's not just one language, there's at least fifty others or more!" Brainwave gave him a shocked look.

"Fifty?!"

"Or more." Perceptor stared at the monitor and his face looked worried and scared. "Uh-oh."

"What 'uh-oh'? Don't say 'uh-oh'. 'Uh-oh' means something bad!" Brainwave started to panic. "What is it? What's the 'uh-oh'?!"

Perceptor didn't look at his partner but said, "An asteroid field." Brainwave looked out. The asteroids seemed to form a perfect circle around four different planets and the yellow star.

"This must be some kind of shield they set up. These life forms must be smarter than we thought," Brainwave noted. "What do we do?"

Perceptor grabbed the controls and flipped the switch on the auto-pilot.

"We go to manual," he said daringly, and a protective mask formed across his face. Brainwave held on to everything he could, going into a panic attack.

_He's gonna kill us both!_ Brainwave thought. _This is suicide!_

Perceptor spent only twenty minutes in the field, but to Brainwave, it had felt like days. His hands started to become numb from clinging onto the closest panel that was towards him. His master dodged every rock he could. But when victory seemed close, Perceptor gasped. Brainwave dared to look, despite everything he'd been through. What he saw would probably be the last time he saw his master again, for a meteor twice the size of their ship had headed straight for them.



Frank the junk man thought he was seeing things when the little asteroid fell into a pile of garbage in his area. He untied his dog, Roscoe, from the post he was at and they went to go check it out. Frank knew they were getting close when Roscoe started to bark, so he knelt down and let the dog loose to find the space artifact. The dog ran like lightning and Frank tried to follow him.

"Wait up, Roscoe! Slow down, boy!" he shouted. When he caught up to the dog, he saw what it had found. He couldn't believe his eyes. He thought this was some kind of joke put up by some rowdy high school gang and shouted "All right, fun's over!"

When the words came out of his mouth, Roscoe started to whimper. Frank turned around and saw that the object he had found was moving. It was _alive_!

_Scree-scretch-netchhhh……. _That was the only sound that Frank could hear from it. He shined the flashlight at the thing laying in the garbage and saw that it was a robot with a strange look to it.

"Hi. What's your name?" Frank tried to smile, to be friendly, but he wasn't sure if that had helped. Brainwave turned his head towards him and uttered a screeching electronic sound that he could not understand.

"All right, let's try this." He pointed to himself and said "Frank." He did this about three times to see if the robot would understand. Somehow, it did. The robot pointed to him and uttered

_Ffrrrrraaaaaaannnk………_

"There you go," said the junk man. Brainwave repeated this several times while Frank was enjoying the glory of his discovery. "Can you walk?"

Brainwave gave him a strange look. Knowing that he couldn't explain everything to the robot, he held out his hand to try and help him up. Brainwave understood this motion and grabbed his hand. Frank pulled as hard as he could, but Brainwave was so heavy, he could hardly lift him an inch. Brainwave saw that Frank was not able to help him up, he tried to get up himself.

Once they were able to make the Mini-con stand, Frank smiled up at him (Brainwave was at least as tall as Mike) and said "Follow me" and grabbed him by the hand. They walked back to Frank's place to make a phone call to the N.Y.C. Museum.


	4. On the Bus

Mrs. Abercrombie is kind of based off of my history teacher. He is the funniest teacher in the school! Well, him and his brother (who are both at my school). So keep that in mind when it seems like Mrs. Abercrombie is trying to be funny.

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Chapter IV

"**Hey, Jaeda, what'd you pack for your lunch? My mom **got me this gross sandwich made out of ham, mayonnaise, pickle, and something else," said Tara, picking through her lunch box. It was already time to go for the trip over from Boston, Massachusetts to New York City, the Big Apple.

"Well, that's lesson one in field trips, Tara: always pack your own food," said Jaeda. She dug through her box to see what she could offer. "Let's see. I have a small bag of potato chips, if you want them."

"I'll take 'em!" Tara snatched the bag of Lays chips from her friend and placed them into her lunch box. "They might last me a good twenty minutes, but I think I can manage."

Jaeda laughed and let her eyes wander around to look for Carter at the bus zone. She looked at every blonde haired guy she saw, but none of them were her childhood friend.

"Hey, Tara?" said Jaeda. Tara looked at her, after stuffing the chips into her box. "Do you know where Carter is?"

"Pssh! Knowing that boy, he probably didn't want to come because of the lectures Ms. Abercrombie might put us through. He's probably up front at the waiting zone, and maybe he's beating up Kenny. Who knows!" Tara loved to joke about Carter whenever he wasn't here.

"All right, students!" Ms. Abercrombie said over the crowd of kids standing in front of the bus. "Now, just form a line right here." She stretched her arms out in front of her. "What I want you to do is start filling up at the _back _of the bus, two to a seat. If you're not seated next to your friend or homie, I'm sorry, I do not make the rules, I follow them. But if you're seated next to your archenemy or something, I'll let you switch seats. Though if there are no seats left to switch, well, I hope you brought an iPod."

With that said, Ms. Abercrombie moved out of everybody's way as they shoved themselves into the vehicle. Ms. Abercrombie rolled her eyes and Jaeda knew what she was thinking: _Didn't I say a line? I was pretty sure I said 'form a line'…_



Jaeda was so grateful that she and Tara were able to sit next to each other, because apparently, Jamal was on the same trip. Tara knew that each time she would look over her shoulder, Jamal would start doing all of these gangster things to get her attention. So instead, both girls listened around the bus for a conversation (it's a game they play: find an interesting conversation near you and then talk about it with your friend).

Jaeda listened all around, but it was the usual stuff; a show on MTV, or Spike, or some other teenage channel, boys, what plans they have for the weekend, "when are you going to ask him/her out?"; typical teen stuff. Jaeda then finally found a conversation she was interested in. But she wasn't sure about talking to Tara about it, because she didn't know much about it herself.

"Hey. Did you hear about the junk man on the news a few days ago?" said a girl.

"You mean the guy who found the robot? Yeah, what about him?"

"It's _real_! The robot's _real_! The junk man said he saw it crash into the yard and he actually tried to communicate with it!"

"What did it say?"

"Well, the junk man said he taught him how to say his name, 'Frank', and it also said 'Percept'."

"What do you think it means?"

"Well, percept means something noticed by senses, like touch and hear. But I don't get why it said it."

"Maybe he just smelled the garbage he was laying in."

"Possible."

Jaeda tuned the two girls out and turned to Tara. Apparently, she didn't quite hear the "junk robot" conversation. She actually had her head turned the other way. So Jaeda shook her shoulder to get her attention.

"What? You get something?" said Tara, seeing the emergency in her friend's eyes.

"I'm not sure," Jaeda said softly. "But I heard these two girls talking about a robot from outer space found in a junk yard."

Tara looked at her friend with a you're-insane look. "Seriously, Jade, a robot…in the _junk yard_?"

"I don't know! What do you think?"

"Hmm…" Tara tuned her out and tried to listen to the same conversation Jaeda had picked up. Her eyes turned wide when she was done listening.

"What is it?" Tara didn't look at her. Jaeda shook her. "What is it? Tell me!" Tara slowly turned her head and whispered.

"The junk man called the people at the museum in New York. The robot's _there_!"


	5. I've Been Sold!

Chapter V

**The last thing Brainwave recalled was being dragged **away in a semi truck filled with all kinds of artifacts he'd never expect to see. Minerals of size and shape, containers for an expired human body (sarcophagus), shelves filed with bendable sheets rolled up that had markings on the inside (Dead Sea scrolls), a sound producing item with a long neck, curved holes in the middle, and consisted of four strings (cello), and so much more! What were these creatures like to have so many valuable things?

Now he was in a dark room, or at least that's how he wanted to think of it for now. He heard voices on the outside, not entirely sure what they were saying.

"_How much do you want for this contraption? I'll pay $500,000 for it_," said the first voice.

"_Oh no!_" said the second voice that Brainwave was sure that it was the thing that called himself Frank. "_This is an _alien_ we're talking about! I'll go for three million, or I'm taking him back to the dump!_"

Brainwave wasn't sure, but the responses from each got him to thinking it was a negotiation, over what?

"_Three million dollars! By God! That's too much money, we can't do that!_"

"_All right, I'll lower it down big to one million and five-hundred thousand. That's as low as I'm ever going_."

"_Oh, all right. Do you take a check?_"

"_As long as you don't cancel on it, I'm fine_."

"_I promise you, Mr. Ritter, I won't._" Brainwave could hear a small shred as the man tore out the check and handed it to Frank.

"_Now, before I go, I want just one more look at him_."

"_Of course_." The man removed the dark sheet away from Brainwave and Mini-con had finally realized where he was; in cage bound down by metallic rope. He looked and saw the smiles on both of the humans' faces. Why were they smiling? Just the other night, Frank had taken care of him, now he's his prisoner?

No.

Brainwave was now sure that the conversation between these two was a negotiation, and they were _pricing him_! This wasn't a planet of good at all! It was as if he had been sent to a torture chamber!

_Scraaeee-turanch-ntchuuuuu!_ He had meant to say a terrible thing to the humans to get them to change their mind. But that was all that humans had ever heard from him: metallic groaning and moaning and screeching.

"_Well! This thing actually has a mind of it's own_!" Mr. O'Neil said as Brainwave struggled to release himself from the ropes. He groaned and screeched some more without making the ropes budge. The screws didn't even come close to moving upwards as he pulled. After some time of straining himself and hearing Mr. O'Neil and Frank gasp and awe and wonder, Brainwave gave up and fell down to his knees.

"_All right! I'll relieve you of this thing and we'll both be on our way_!" said O'Neil shaking Frank's hand.

"_Thank you, Mr. Manager. He's your issue now, I don't care what you do with him_!" Brainwave heard Frank say.

"_No, thank _you, _Mr. Ritter_," said O'Neil.


	6. A Breakthrough of Science and SciFi

Chapter VI

"**We're finally here! Where do you want to go first?" Tara **was more excited about this than Jaeda thought. She was usually bored in class, but on field trips she seemed hyper.

"Well, I wanted to see what the robot was all about," Jaeda confessed. Hearing the news about this, she thought that it would help her father with her research.

"I thought about that too," Tara said happily.

"Hold on, ladies," said Ms. Abercrombie from behind them. "I have something to say first." She blew her whistle at the class that was unloading the bus. "All right! Rules of the groups: 1) Stay in groups of two or three, 2) No acting up, I don't like hearing complaints from other parents, 3) Don't touch anything! We can scan the artifacts and find your fingerprints, you know. And 4) I want us _all _to meet back at the front door at 12:15, so you can have your lunch. Now, if you have a perishable--needs to keep cool-- lunch, please come to the back of the bus and we'll put your food in coolers! That's all, now get lost."

Tara and Jaeda, of course, paired up and ran towards the door before Jamal could catch up with them. And just like they said, they went straight to the "alien robot" holding. There was at least two hundred other people who wanted to see the robot, to believe the story themselves. It took at least thirty minutes for Tara and Jaeda to get seated. It seemed like they had the best seats around; no tall person to block your entire view, and they were close enough so they might be able to see the whole structure of the robot. The lights dimmed down and the manager of the museum, Archibald O'Neil, stepped out into the spotlight with an ear microphone.

"Ladies and gentleman, children and young adults of every age, I'm sure you have heard of the impossible story of the mechanical being, fallen from the heavens, am I correct?"

"Yeah!" the crowd screamed.

"Well, I'm here to tell you, he's here today. The being of another world. He is living proof of existence outside of our planet, though we can not be sure where he's from, and he can't tell us, because of his strange language." Some men brought out a large box with a cloth over it that Jaeda guessed contained the robot. The manager put his hand on it.

"This here holds the great power of evolution in any robotics." After his sentence, the box thumped loudly and Archibald stepped back a few times. The crowd and Jaeda laughed.

"Don't worry!" Archibald announced. "This is four-inch thick glass, he can't get through." A drum roll started. "Now, without further ado, I give you the dawn of new era in science and science-fiction." He stepped closer to the cage and grabbed the sheet that was draped over it. "I give you, Sparx!" He removed the sheet and the blue and gold Mini-con gave out his electronic scream. Jaeda and Tara stared out at him in a daze. They saw him try to break the bonds that held him down. He wasn't strong enough.

"It's fake! They probably have a hologram set up!" someone in front of Jaeda yelled out. Archibald turned to face the man.

"I assure you, good sir, that _this_ is not a fake! And I'll prove it to you! I'll bring him out!" The crowd gasped. Bringing an alien out? What was it going to do if it got loose? Jaeda saw the men return, one holding the keys. He dropped them into Archibald's hand and the manager walked towards the lock of the cage. Jaeda could see the robot getting tense.

"Is he really going to let him outside?" Tara whispered.

"I think he is!" Jaeda responded. Mr. O'Neil stepped inside the cage and walked towards what Brainwave now knew himself as Sparx. He started to breathe even harder with each step the man took. Jaeda thought he was going to ravage out with insane fury and kill the manager!

But it was the opposite. Sparx knew that whatever he did, he had to behave, or they might put him offline. So Archibald slowly moved towards the cuffs connected to the chains and unlocked them, let them fall to the ground. Sparx let out a long sigh.

"There," the manager whispered, though he knew the robot could not understand him. "Now, come on out." The manager walked backwards out of the cage and moved his fingers to show that he wanted Sparx to come out. Sparx thought that he was going to set him free, but there were other beings around, and they all looked amazed. This was more like a zoo than a museum to the Mini-con.

Sparx followed the man out of the cage and looked around to see the faces of the crowd.

"Now, I shall pick, at random, a person to come and see that he is very much real!" Archibald announced. He closed his eyes and moved his pointed finger around. Finally, after a few seconds, he stopped.

"How about you, young girl?" he said. Tara looked around.

"Me?"

"No, the other. The brown haired girl." Tara looked at Jaeda.

"He's talking about _you_! Go up there!" Tara encouraged. Jaeda's eyes were as wide as they could get, her pupils irissed down to the size of a period. She slowly stood up as a different spotlight shined down on her. Sparx turned his head to look at the girl. His expression changed almost dramatically from angry and irritated to wondrously dazzled.

Jaeda walked down the steps onto the stage, and as she moved, she heard whispers of jealousy and confusion. The manager stepped towards her and took her hand to lead her to Sparx.

"What is your name?" he asked.

"Jaeda," she answered.

"Well, Jaeda, don't you worry. He's completely safe," he assured her. Jaeda nodded, hoping he knew what he was saying and stepped in front of Sparx, standing only one foot away from him. Sparx still stared at her, dazed.

Jaeda reached out her hand and softly touched his iron face. It was smooth, not what she had expected. The robot seemed to react to the touch and his eyes drooped just a bit. Jaeda was amazed at how his eyes had glowed. She looked at them longer and saw everything she possibly could; gentleness, frustration, and something she knew was there, but couldn't dig deep enough to find out.

The manager had said something, but Jaeda couldn't hear. She didn't want to hear. Sparx looked at her and started to move his hand. Jaeda flinched a little by seeing it move, but stood where she was. The hand moved up and Sparx started to stroke her hair with the lightest touch he possibly could manage. He whispered something in his language, and Jaeda felt sorry that she couldn't understand him.

"Young girl? Are you all right?" the manager said through his microphone. Jaeda jumped out of her silent world and turned her attention to the manager.

"I said are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said simply. She took another glance at Sparx. He was still staring at her with those gentle eyes.

"Well, maybe you'd like to tell the crowd; is this a hologram, or is it solid to touch?" he said with a smile since he knew the answer that could not be changed.

"He's real." The crowd gasped and started to murmur. "He's the real thing." Sparx reacted quickly and hugged Jaeda and the crowd started to go into an uproar. Jaeda was pretty sure she heard a wolf whistle out in the crowd somewhere.

_Jaaaaaaeeeeee……..daaaaaahhhh……._

Jaeda's eyes became wide again. The voice was electronic, but it couldn't be possible.

Sparx had said her name!

"Well, uh, Sparx, you can let go of the girl now," said the manager in a nervous tone. Sparx glared at Archibald as he stepped back again. Jaeda put her hand on Sparx's chest, on a power point, and she thought it started to hum. Ignoring it, she pushed herself away from Sparx's grasp and walked back to her seat. The Mini-con's eyes followed her as she sat back down next to her friend.

"All right! Now Sparx, you can go back inside!" The manager pointed to the cage to get him back in. "Go on. Off you go!" Sparx didn't want to move. Instead, he growled. "All right then, Sparx, you're giving me no choice. Luther!" He called for one of his assistants, and the man had given the manager a cattle prod. Archibald switched it on and it came to life. The crowd started to scream as Sparx gave out a cry out of battle.

"Sparx! I order you back into the cage, now go!" He stepped closer to the robot and almost started to prick him with electricity surging from the prod. Sparx stepped back each time and was forced back into the cage. Two men were already waiting inside and snapped on the titanium cuffs to Sparx. The men ran out of the glass cage before Sparx could get to them. Mr. O'Neil quickly closed the door and locked Sparx inside. Knowing he had lost, the robot fell to the surface on his knees.

"Well, that's probably enough for a single day. Take him out of here!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, a sound came from Sparx's cage. Everyone turned to see what it was. Sparx made different pitches with his voice, touching Jaeda in her heart.

"He's singing," she whispered. "He's sounds so sad…"


	7. Are You Serious!

**Chapter VII**

"**What do mean 'he's sad'? How can you even tell?" said **Tara. She was confused about how Jaeda had reacted to Sparx's pitches. Jaeda started to sniffle.

"I can hear it, Tara," she said. "He's been hurt real badly, I can tell." Tara turned her head away.

"Girl, you have_ lost it_," she muttered so Jaeda wouldn't hear. Sparx kept on with his strange tune. Archibald was starting to get impatient with it and the crowd was silent as they heard Sparx's song.

"Get him out!" he screeched. "Get him out _now_!" Two men pushed on one side of the crate while the other two pulled on the ropes and sent him backstage. When Sparx wasn't seen anymore, he stopped abruptly.

Absolute silence.

The pressure of it was deafening to Jaeda's ears and she knew Tara felt the same way because she started to rub her own ears. After a moment, the manager spoke again.

"Well, thank you, good people of New York! We hoped you enjoyed as your knowledge was now being tested upon fiction and science!" He took a bow as the crowd cheered and roared and whistled and stomped their feet in the bleachers. The manager looked at everyone in the crowd and turned back to head backstage.



"What the hell was that!" Mr. O'Neil screamed. He shoved one of assistants into a pile of scrap cardboard boxes.

"What sir?" said another.

"You know damn well what, Mr. Crandon!" the manager shouted. "The robot tried to go ape on me! He's never done this before! I've had several people come up and this is the first time he's ever reacted!"

"Maybe he liked the girl," another chuckled.

"Oh, don't be _ridiculous_, Mr. Connors," said Mr. O'Neil. "The fact that an alien robot could actually fall in _love_ with a human? Preposterous!" He started to pace as he quieted his voice. Sparx was watching carefully.

"He has a point, Mr. O'Neil," said Crandon. "He's never reacted to a human touch until now. Maybe, and I'm just taking a stab in the dark here, that he felt something in the girl that he didn't with anyone else."

The manager stopped pacing and looked at his assistant.

"By God," he said. "Are suggesting that there's another here on Earth like Sparx, and it's the _girl_?"

"Not exactly," said Crandon. "I mean, love is a strong bond and usually has a strange way of finding itself." Connors looked at his friend with giant eyes.

"Wow, give the man a prize," he said. " Cody Crandon, an insightful guy!"

"Shut up, Aaron!"



"Hey, it's twelve o'clock," said Jaeda. "We'd better get back to the front." Tara nodded and walked with her friend to the gate. Others had met up with them and started to walk along with them. Unfortunately, Jamal had spotted them and started walking extremely close to Tara. He put his arm around her.

"Move it or _lose _it," Tara said angrily, without looking up at him. Jamal heeded the threat and quickly took his arm off of her. Jaeda giggled quietly and kept on moving.

The rest of the day was boring, compared to the Sparx show. They heard boring lectures, just as Carter had foretold, and wandered around from place to place, just looking at statues and other things that might seem to be of interest. Well, what do you expect from a science museum?

Jaeda was just glad the rest of the day went by fast. The class made it back in time for their fourth period class, near the end of the day. Forty more minutes and they would be out for the weekend! Luckily, Jaeda's fourth period class was English and their teacher had promised them a free day. And thankfully, English included Carter.

"Jaeda! You're back!" he said coming up to her. He gave her a half-hug and escorted her to two seats across the room.

"So tell me," he said as soon as they sat down, "were there lectures all day, or was it actually exciting?" Jaeda shrugged.

"A little of both," she said.

"Both?" Carter had never heard of science being so fun.

"Yeah, well, have you heard of the junk man who claimed to have found a robot in his yard?"

"Yeah, I saw it a few days ago on the news, why?"

"It's real! The robot was sent to the museum we went to and I was picked to actually test to see if it was solid!"

"Are you serious!" Carter stood corrected. "Was it the real thing?"

"I think so. He seemed solid enough, and if that was a costume, it had to be a pretty strong man, because it was all metal, and I could see bolts on his neck as well!"

"Amazing! Anything happen next?"

"Well, when I touched its face, he seemed to react to it. He moved his hand and touched my hair, and said something in his alien language. I just _wish_ that I knew what he was saying to me!"

"And, get to the end…"

"I saw his eyes, and they were…enchanting to me… I could see what he had been through, what he had to go through… There were three emotions I knew were shown in those eyes; rage, softness, and something else was there, I just don't know what it was…" Jaeda's voice faded off as she threw her mind back into that moment. She felt everything going on just the way it had been just those few hours ago.

"Jaeda?" Carter interrupted her fantasy. She shook her head to get back to reality.

"Oh, sorry. I was just dazing."

"Did anything else happen, or was that it?"

"No." She paused. "He grabbed me, pulled me to his chest, and think he was hugging me." She took a quick glance at Carter. His face was turning a pinkish rose color. "Anyway, the manager who was hosting the show, asked the robot, Sparx, to get back inside of the glass cage. But you know what he did? Sparx growled at him!" Carter eyes flashed. "Yeah! One of the manager's assistants brought in a cattle prod and started to poke at Sparx, making him step back inside the cage. Two men inside strapped him back in when he was close enough. The robot struggled to get loose, but I guess he wasn't strong enough to break out." She took another pause.

"And then…I think he sang." Carter looked at her again.

"_Sang_?" His voice sounded confused. It made no sense to him that a robot from outer space knew how sing. He looked around and saw that other people around them got quiet as Jaeda was telling her story. Even the teacher had stopped reading her book to listen. Then, one of the class spoke.

"So what happened next?"

"Me and Tara left. They took the robot backstage and we left to get our lunches. The rest of the day seemed pretty dull after what had happened."

The class murmured, reminding Jaeda of the crowd, and continued on with their free day.


	8. Happy Birthday, Jaeda!

**Chapter VIII**

**When Jaeda got home, she told her parents the entire** story. She knew Mike wasn't going to be interested, since she was the little sister and the attention wouldn't be focused on him. She told about how she was picked to test out Sparx, how Sparx's behavior sent him back, the whole nine yards.

"Well, I've never heard of an alien robot before! I'll have to see if I can get permission to examine him and enhance my research a bit," said George.

"Don't work too hard," Jaeda said with a smile. "You know what's coming up next Saturday, don't you?" She put her hands behind her back and started swinging from side to side with a huge grin on her face.

"How could I forget, birthday girl," George said with the same smile. "You never told me what you wanted though."

"Surprise me!" she said.

"Well, that's a different story!" her mom butted in. "Usually you give a list as long as Santa's and you expect at least half of it to show up!"

"I'm fifteen now, Mom," she said casually.

"I know. Next year there's a car, I know it!" Jaeda laughed at her mom's joke and went up to her room to get her homework done. Emily sat down on the couch next to her husband as he kept reading his paper.

"Honey?" she asked. "What do you think about Jaeda's story, with the robot?"

"To be honest, I believe her. She said it with good detail and I felt like I was there watching her as she came up to the thing!" he answered. "I think I'll go over to the museum on Wednesday and see what I can do about the study."

"Okay, dear," said his wife. She kissed him on the cheek and walked over to the kitchen to get the steak before it started burning.



George went over to the N.Y.C. Museum like he had promised and asked to go and see the robot himself. The officer standing guard said no, so George had to take out his Labs license (as he called) to gain entry. The officer escorted him over to the manager.

"Excuse me," said George as they walked into the manager's office. Archibald turned around to look at him.

"Hmm?"

"Are you Mr. O'Neil?"

"Indeed I am, sir! What can I help you with?"

"I need to see the robot you bought from Frank Ritter a week ago. I have a license of study from Boston Labs."

"Well certainly, Mister….

"Scotts. George Scotts." He held out his hand to shake.

"Mr. Scotts," the manager said, accepting the hand. "Nice grip. I'll take you to Sparx right away."

They walked down a few hallways to get to the holding part of the museum. There were a lot of strange looking items that were meant to be put up in exhibits, but there was no room for them. They kept walking until they reached the back of the room and that's where George had seen one of the many wonders of the world.

"_Incredible_!" he said. Sparx had heard this unfamiliar voice and looked up. It was a man dressed in a white robe that led down to the middle of his lower leg. This man was looking oddly familiar to him.

"_Yes, but he's been a lot of trouble lately. Just last Friday was when he started to act up._" Sparx knew this man standing by the white-dressed one. He was the same creature that had bought him from Frank.

"_How did it start_?"

"_Well, I picked a person from the crowd at random, like I do with my other shows. The one I had picked was a girl who looked like she was on the field trip that was scheduled. Anyway, she touched his face and, for the first time, he reacted to it. When I tried to talk him into getting back in the cage he tried to get rough with me! My employees say that the robot might actually be in love with the girl_." He started to laugh.

"_Was this girl by the name of Jaeda, if you remember?_"

"_Why, yes. Do you know her?_" Then his face looked shocked. "_She's not suing, is she_?" The man in white laughed.

"_No, no, I'm her father. I've come to take him. Of course, I'll go up to only two million dollars_." The manager's face started to look a bit greedy for a reason. Sparx had then heard him say yes and they shook hands. Again, as he had seen before, the man in white wrote down something on a tiny sheet and handed it to the manager. Sparx groaned in anger and disbelief.

He had been sold, _again_!



Saturday came by faster than Jaeda had expected. For her birthday, it wasn't as big as it had been when she was turning twelve. She kept it sort of simple; at home, her family (which included the grandparents, both sides of the family, her brother) and her two friends Tara and Carter. Though she hadn't told anyone what she wanted, she got what she needed. From her grandparents was a sketchbook (she liked to draw during class); from her cousins were pictures that they had made themselves (one of Jaeda and another of Jaeda having a party outside in the park); from Tara was a make-up kit (she'd been trying to get Jaeda to wear make-up for ages); from Carter was a book that she had been dying to get, a romance called _Make-Up Or Break-Up_. But strangely, she didn't get one from her parents.

"It's coming," said her dad. "Should be here right about…" The doorbell rang. George answered it.

"Hello?"

"You George Scotts?" The conversation continued on for a few moments and George's face lit up.

"Now! Here's your present!" Jaeda looked surprised when she came out. A semi the size of a U-Haul was parked outside of their house. She had told her dad to keep it simple right? Yet, didn't she tell him to surprise her?

"Get in," said George as he opened the back. Jaeda was helped by Carter to get inside the truck. She heard Carter and Tara whine as George pushed them back, not letting them have a look.

Jaeda saw only one thing; a crate draped over by a brown cloth. She wondered what it was because it was so huge. What could she have possibly wants that was that big? Giving into temptation, she yanked the sheet right of and took a look. It was a glass cage with something she couldn't see inside it. Jaeda saw it move and two bright, blue lights looked straight at her. It chirped.

_Scroooeee-scraee…_

"OHMYGOD!" Jaeda screamed. Sparx flinched, thinking that Jaeda was probably going to attack. Instead, Jaeda walked back to her dad and he handed her a pair of keys. She ran back to the box and opened the door to the cage. Sparx flinched and finally got a good look at Jaeda's face as she paused right when she was about to take off the titanium cuffs. And, just like last time, he started to stroke her hair. Jaeda smiled, and in reaction, Sparx smiled back and gave an electronic giggle.

_Hmm-mmm-hmm!_

Jaeda laughed to and gave Sparx a hug. Apparently, Sparx thought she was going to go away again because he didn't want to let go of her. Jaeda finally was able to force him back and unlocked the cuffs.

"What do you think of your new present, Jaeda?" her dad called.

"I love it! How'd you… I don't believe it!" Jaeda was just ecstatic! Her dad had actually bought Sparx; the only alien robot known to humankind!

"Come on, Jaeda! Let's take look at it!" Carter called. Jaeda was already thinking about how he was going to react when he saw Sparx. She helped Sparx stand on his feet and brought him into the light and jumped off the back of the truck. Carter stood there slack-jawed and buggy-eyed. This couldn't possibly be the robot she was talking about a week ago!

"Holy s-"

"Don't say it!" Tara interrupted him. She focused her attention back to Jaeda and screamed. Jaeda screamed too and they ran up to hug each other. "This is unreal!"

"I know!"

"Mr. Scotts, how'd you get him?"

"I bought him," he said. "The Lab gave me two millions dollars to buy him off and do research on him. So, technically, he's mine too, Jaeda."

"I don't care!" said Jaeda happily. Sparx smiled, knowing that he was going to stay with Jaeda. "All I care is that I have the best present in the universe!"

Carter took a step forward to get a closer look at Sparx. He stared at him with his largest eyes and held that position for a long time. Sparx looked at himself and then behind him to see what was the matter. Sparx stared back at Carter to try and see if some kind of reverse effect would happen and he would stop looking at him.

"This is Sparx?" Carter finally said.

Jaeda nodded mutely.

"Jaeda, I can't hear your head rattle, now tell me. Is this the robot from the museum?"

"Yes!" Jaeda said cheerfully. The rest of the family came out to see Jaeda's new present and started asking George some questions. Tara and Carter just went on talking to themselves and Jaeda looked over at Sparx; he was smiling.

_I wish Perceptor were here to see this._

Jaeda flinched. She hadn't known where the voice had come from and took a look at the ongoing party members They obviously hadn't heard what Jaeda did. She glanced at Sparx again with a blank look. Sparx mimicked her expression and planted it on his own face.

xXx

Author's Note: How many o' ya'll want Brainwave as a birthday present, rasie your hands! *hand goes up* Thought so. My sister loves this part, but she wants Bumblebee instead of Brainwave. And I'm sure a lot of fangirls want Starscream!


	9. Thanks A Lot, Tara

Chapter IX

"**Jaeda! I heard about your dad! Does he really own the** robot?" said a freshman student named Marcus. Jaeda looked at the boy with a confused look.

"Excuse me, what?" she said.

"Your friend, Tara Reynolds, she told the news about your birthday party and about your present," he said rapidly. "So, do you actually have the robot?"

Jaeda looked around for Tara. She saw her standing by this popular crowd that they had always despised. By the looks of it, Tara was bragging for Jaeda. She'd deal with her later.

"Yep!" she said, turning back to Marcus. "My dad paid the manager over at the museum up in New York, now we got him!" She figured she might as well tell the boy; what more damage was there to be done?

"That's awesome!" Marcus replied. "Well, thanks for telling! I just wanted to make sure Tara was telling the truth."

"So do I, Marcus, so do I…" They walked away from each other, Marcus telling the confirmed news to his other pals and Jaeda stomped over to Tara and the popular crowd.

"So, Carter was freaked, right? And then-"

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Jaeda interrupted. Tara stopped telling her story and the crowd turned their attention to Jaeda.

"Hey! You're Jaeda!"

"Is the robot for real?"

"Where's he from?"

The entire high school, it seemed, started asking her questions and only about a quarter she knew the answer to.

"Tara, can I see you for a second, _in private_?" Jaeda exaggerated. Tara nodded her head and stepped away from the crowd. Jaeda turned them so they couldn't overhear. "Why did you decide to tell everyone in the school about Sparx?"

"I don't know. To bump up our popularity, I guess," Tara shrugged. Jaeda ran her fingers through her hair.

"I don't _want _to be popular, Tara," she said. "I was fine the way I was. I'd like it to stay like that." She looked at the group who were still talking about Jaeda owning a robot. "But it seems I'm a little too late to tell you that."



The principal had apparently heard of Jaeda's birthday present as well, so he had announced that all high school students should leave her alone about it. So for the rest of the day, Jaeda only saw people look and turn away as soon as she had turned her head. Then they went on whispering about her. At least they weren't screaming out "Hey, Jaeda! Good luck with the robot!"

Carter met Jaeda and Tara at lunch. He tried to squeeze through a couple of people that wanted to be near Jaeda as well. He slammed his lunch tray down onto the table.

"Okay," he said, "I want to know who started spreading the news, and I want to know _now_!" All eyes then turned to Tara. But she kept eating her pizza casually.

"Of course," Carter mumbled.

"Hey, if Jaeda has an awesome alien robot, I think people should know about it!" Tara said in her defense. "I mean, think about it. Now we can be invited to parties, have a couple of hot guys fall in love with us, we'd be the talk of the century at this school!"

"Tara, everything was fine. The reason we didn't want to become popular was that it would not go to our heads," Carter explained. Jaeda nodded her head and Tara looked at both of them.

"You two decided this before you even met me, huh?"

"Even before we got into middle school," Jaeda added.

"So, what are we going to do about everybody else? I mean, the news spread like it was fire in forest. And we can't just stop it, and we can't wait for it to go away," said Carter, being all philosophical.

"Well, if there's a fire, there's two things you can do: get the fire extinguisher yourself, or call the fire department," said Jaeda.

"What are you talking about?" Tara said as she stuffed down her brownie.

"Either you stop the news yourself, or you can find some other news that kids can pick on."

"How are we going to do that?" Carter asked.

"I honestly have no idea," Jaeda replied.



At the car pick-up after school, some of the students backed off on Jaeda when Carter had gotten tough on them. Sure, he was a short guy, but he was tough for his age. Must've been the growth spurt from last year as a freshman. Each time they backed off, Jaeda had to giggle. Carter was always so protective of his friend she thought that he was just irreplaceable!

"Even the seniors are afraid of him!" Tara said surprised.

"They should be!" Carter said back. Jaeda liked to hear them argue. It was like a married couple, only they didn't scream and shout and stomp their feet and there was more drama than attitude. A few moments later, a car horn honked. Jaeda turned and saw that it was her dad, coming to pick her up.

"Well, see you guys later!" Jaeda waved as she ran to her dad. Her friends stopped their conversation to say bye and then continued with their argument. Jaeda stepped in the car as fast as she could to get home and hear how Sparx was doing.

"You really like this guy, huh?" her dad said.

"Yeah! I feel like I know him more than I actually do, and he seems nice. I just want to know how he's doing. Especially since your doing your so-called tests on him," she snapped in a playful way. "So what did you find out about him?"

"Just a few things. He's completely independent; runs on his own steam, doesn't act like he's programmed for anything at all. But he _is _programmed!" her dad answered. "His body is made out of a strong metal, like diamonds. He has an energy source running through him. We took him into a room for a simulated combat and…" He paused to think. "He touches those points on his hands and energy shoots right from it! He even does it with the rest of the points!"

"You mean Sparx is armed?"

"Entirely, and extremely dangerous! He could blow half of Boston if he wanted to! I don't even think he should be in the house any more."

Jaeda spent the rest of the ride home in silence, thinking about Sparx. She had just gotten her present (and from outer space) and now it's taken away from her. When they got home, Jaeda rushed in to see Sparx.

"He's in the basement lab," her mom said when Jaeda ran in. Jaeda said thanks and ran towards the door leading to the basement and ran down a flight of steps. She saw Sparx standing in a contained area with wires connected to the points on his body.

She put her hand on the glass and Sparx snapped his eyes open and looked at Jaeda. She moved her hand in reaction.

"Sorry," she said, though she knew he couldn't understand her. But she had seen Sparx nod his head as if to say it was okay. She stared at him with pity in her eyes. She couldn't stand to see a creature like this behind anything that was keeping it away from her. Especially since it looked human and she was sure it had the same kind of emotions. So she turned away and walked back up the steps. The voice came again.

_Don't cry Jaeda. I'll be okay. Don't worry about it._


	10. Deal

Chapter X

**Dinner time was silent. No one talked, not even Michael. **Jaeda wasn't sure if she could stand it any longer. Usually every one had something to talk about. Even jokes to tell.

The silence hurt.

Jaeda got up from the table and took her plate to the sink. She rinsed it off and put it in the dish washer. She walked away from the living room and turned her head to the quiet family still eating their dinners They didn't look at her. They looked like they didn't even notice her move.

So she walked down to the basement again, for some company that seemed better than the one she had. She walked in and Sparx snapped his eyes open like he had done last time.

She sat in front of the container that held him, her back to him, and just sat there, head in her hands.

_What's wrong?_

Jaeda jumped. That was the third time she had heard that voice, but it wasn't familiar to her. She turned around and saw Sparx's face looking at her questioningly. She shook her head, thinking she was just momentarily crazy, and went back to the position she was in. But the voice came again.

_I wish I could speak the language. But I can only understand…_

That time, Jaeda was seriously thinking she was permanently insane! You don't hear voices pop up twice in less than five minutes. She turned to look at Sparx again and this time he was staring at her, just as confused as she was.

"Was that you?" she dared to ask. Sparx shook his head, but held his face expression. Jaeda turned away again, depressed. If it wasn't Sparx, who was it?

_Can she hear me?_

And for the third time, Jaeda spun around and stood up.

"It _was_ you!" She pointed at him and Sparx flinched. "You're talking to me! I can hear you!"

_Since when do organics understand Cybertronian?_

Jaeda rolled her eyes.

"I can't, I swear. This is the first time something like this has happened," she explained. Sparx suddenly went crazy. He moved around with so much joy that Jaeda thought he was going to burst out of the container.

"Take it easy!" she shouted. Sparx, at the command, just abruptly stopped and looked at her.

_This is impossible!_

"Then how come it's possible?" Jaeda joked. She managed to bring out a chuckle and Sparx let out an electronic giggle. It sounded kind of cute.

"So, what are you doing on Earth, anyway?"

She just had to ask.

Sparx suddenly stopped smiling and his face drooped down. He remembered his last trip through space.

_I don't want to talk about it._

"Oh."

_Is it possible for you to let me out? _He gave her a kind of begging look, just like a puppy. Jaeda smiled; she couldn't resist seeing a robot act like this, it wasn't, well… logical. Then again, nothing was now.

"My dad says I can't," she said. Sparx became mad and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "His reason is that he knows you're armed and doesn't think you're safe enough to walk around a lot."

_Understandable. _

Jaeda sighed as Sparx's face then went from angry to sad again. Seeing this, she knew she had to do something, not just keep him here locked in a cage.

"How about tonight?"

_Huh?_

"Tonight, around eleven, when everyone else is asleep. I'll come by to get you free and you can wander around the property as much as you want. But you'll be outside only when I'm there, okay?"

_Deal!_

"Condition number one: don't blow anything up. Condition two: wreck the house and you're going to answer to me and my dad's blowtorch. And condition three: if you exit the property, at any time, you're staying here for the remainder of the time you're supposed to be here. Got it?"

_Got it. But what do you mean by 'the remainder of the time you're supposed to be here'?_

"You were sent, weren't you?"

_Yeah._

"So there's a time limit that you're on when you come to Earth."

_You mean organics actually do that?_

Jaeda laughed. "No, no. You're not getting it. You were sent by your, uh, commander or whatever. He gives you a length of time of how long you're going to stay on the planet. You're sent to the planet and you come back telling him what you found, am I right?"

_How'd you know?_

"I watch a lot of science-fiction movies in my free time. I think I know a few things about aliens."

_Then how about I make _you _a deal?_

Jaeda perked up and said "I'm listening." Sparx smiled.

_All right, if you let me go, I'll give you something in return._

"Oh, no. I couldn't accept anything!"

_Listen to me. If you let me go, I'll tell you everything I can about my planet and how I got here, okay? And if _I _have any questions about _your _planet, you tell me what I need to hear. Deal?_

Jaeda thought for bit. This couldn't possibly be a robot! It was negotiating with her, for once. And it certainly didn't talk like one either; might have sounded like one, but he didn't talk like one.

"All right, Sparx. You have a deal." She pretended to shake hands with him and turned away. "I'll see you tonight!"

_Until then, Jaeda!_

xXx

Author's Note: If anyone would like to see what Brainwave looks like, go to YouTube and type in **Fanfic Brainwave+Jaeda- Look At Us (Daddy DJ Remix)**. Yeah, I know it's a mouthfull, so Brainwave+Jaeda might work just fine.


	11. Forever

Chapter XI

**It was harder than she thought to try and sneak by her** parents' room. She couldn't tell if they were asleep because she didn't hear any snores. But was kind of easy when she walked by her brother's room. Either he was snoring or he had a propeller up his nose. She tipped-toed over down into the basement to find Sparx snoring as well! She silently walked over to the side of the room to get the keys to the lock and walked back to the cylinder container. She pressed the key into the lock and when she turned it, it had made a hissing sound that woke up Sparx.

_You came!_

"Of course I did!" she said. "You're the most exciting thing that's happened to me so far in my life, and I want to make the most of it." Sparx looked at her with wide eyes. "Come on, you know what I mean."

_Uh, actually… no I don't. I'm actually very confused._

"I'll explain later then. Right now, I'm trying to bust you out." Again, a confused look crossed over Sparx's face. The language here was so complicated to him.

The door finally unlocked and Jaeda stepped in to help him get the wires off of him. It wasn't hard at all. The wires just slid right out.

_Thanks._

"No problem," she replied with a smile. "So what do you want to know?"

_Well, I'm feeling vibrating rhythms coming from your room and I was wondering what that was._

"Rhythms?" Jaeda had to think about for a bit until she finally realized what he was talking about. "Oh! Music!"

_Music? What's that?_

"Well, it's kind of like different sounds mixed together to form a sort of song. Ugh, I don't know how to explain it. Here." She took Sparx's hand and brought him up into her room. She closed the door silently and tried to find her CDs in the mess that she had.

"Okay, I know it's messy. I just didn't expect to have anyone up here tonight. Especially a guy," she joked and laughed a bit.

_What do mean?_

"Wow," she said. "I've got a lot to teach you, then…Ah! Here it is!" She took a CD out of the black case she had found and put it in the CD player, turning down the volume. The song was _Forever._

_Wow… _Sparx had sighed.

"You like Chris Brown?"

_Who?_

"He's the main singer in this song. Just wait…" She waited for the perfect moment for the man's voice to come in. "There! That's Chris Brown. He's pretty famous in his career."

_I can imagine. What's he talking about? 'Dancing'?_

"Well, dancing is like when you're moving to the song and the beat. Here." She started to dance around a bit. "Okay, I'm probably not the best dancer around, but that's all I can manage."

_It looks okay to me. How do the others dance?_

"I rather not. It's kind of perverted to me."

_What?_

"Okay, there's no way I'm explaining the word _perverted_ to a robot!"

_Just wondering… This song's kind of…I don't know._

"Cool?"

_Is cool a good thing?_

"Yeah. It's slang, like how a human would say a country boy from out of the city is called a 'redneck'."

_Ha ha!_

"What?"

_Just a bit of irony! On my planet, someone like that is called a 'mud flap'!_

Jaeda laughed along with Sparx's electronic chuckle. "I didn't know you guys had slang!"

_Guess there's not too big of a difference then. _He paused for a bit, closed his eyes, and Jaeda saw him swaying a bit to the song. He opened his eyes again and he danced.

Jaeda's mouth fell right open!

For a robot who didn't know about Earth, he was pretty good at learning fast. When he was done, Jaeda clapped, softly though.

_What are you doing?_

"Clapping," she explained. "It's what we do at the end of a performance." The song started over again. "Oops! Sorry, I think I have it on repeat."

_No, leave it._

He walked up behind her and grabbed her hips. He spun her around so that they were looking face-to-face. He looked at her with the same gentle eyes as Jaeda had first seen him.

He did the electro-giggle again.

"What? What is it?" Jaeda asked. Was there something on her? If there was, this night was _so _not going in her journal.

_Your face! It looks like it's turning red._

Jaeda covered her face in embarrassment.

_I'm sorry, is that something I shouldn't have said?_

"No, no, you're fine. This is called blushing," she said as she removed her hands. "Usually we do it when we feel, uh, embarrassed, shamed, or-" She stopped, thinking whether she should say the next meaning to him or not. Even though she knew Sparx was a robot, she couldn't tell her how she was feeling!

_What? What's the third one?_ Obviously he wanted to know. So to satisfy him, she whispered:

"Emotional." Sparx moved a bit. "The emotion for blushing is actually love, in most cases."

_What's love?_

Okay, that was it. Jaeda was done answering these questions.

"Get out," she said.

_I'm sorry?_

"Get out!" she said more loudly, but not enough to wake up her parents. Sparx nodded his head and left, a sad look on him.

The song had stopped.


	12. Confess

Chapter XII

"**Are you serious? Please tell me you ain't lying!"**

"No more lies right now, Tara. It's the honest truth," said Jaeda. She was explaining the other night to her friends in the cafeteria. Everything about how she could hear Sparx's thoughts and when she had brought him up into her room to listen to music.

"So wait, when he left, the music just stopped?" said Carter.

"Yeah!" Jaeda replied. "Just stopped."

"Do you think Sparx did it?"

"What are you talking about, boy?" Tara butted in between.

"She said the song started over again because it was on repeat. But when Sparx left, the song stopped, didn't play again." He took a sip of his soda.

"He's got a point, Tara. I mean, Sparx is a robot from another planet. He's most likely to do things like that," said Jaeda. Sparx must've been excited to hear the song, but depressed if he'd stopped it.

"You must've really upset the guy," said Tara, as if she had just read Jaeda's thoughts.

"Do you think he might forgive me?"

"Well, if I was Sparx, I would. I mean, you're only human. And that was kind of hard question to answer in front of him, I'm sure," said the "all knowing" Carter.

"Thanks, Carter. You're the best," Jaeda said smiling. Carter smiled back.

"Just doing what I can."

Tara looked around at everyone else who was eating.

"What?" Jaeda asked.

"Have you noticed that nobody's bombarding you with questions today? Man, popular one day, nerd the next."

"I guess you guys didn't hear about Rebecca," said Carter.

"The snob in Spanish?" said Jaeda.

"Yep. She broke up with the jock guy, Darren, for some bass player named Luke."

"And _that's _more important than the alien at Jaeda's?!" Tara screamed. Jaeda patted her head.

"Calm down. I told you I didn't want fame, anyway."

"Gives you good publicity, though," Tara murmured.



When she got home, Jaeda went straight to the basement to apologize to Sparx. But he wasn't there. Her father then came down explaining that he was at the Lab, his colleagues were working on him so George could have a break. Jaeda sighed, disappointed, and slowly walked up to her room. She plopped herself down onto the bed and put her head inside her pillow. Occasionally she would lift her head up to breathe. The whole time she had acted out in her head what she would say to Sparx and how he might react to it. She wasn't sure if any of the parts were how he would act, but it was accurate enough for Jaeda.

When she finally got hungry, she walked down to the kitchen. The food was already set on the table and Mike was already stuffing down his Salisbury steak.

"Slow down, boy!" his dad said. "I don't want the oldest dying on me because he choked." Jaeda didn't laugh. She was too upset about making Sparx leave. He looked like it really hurt his feelings.

"Dad, when is Sparx coming back?" she asked, not thinking about it before she had said it.

"Well, he should be coming back around mid-night. My partner called me and said a few more tests had to be done and an artist had come in to sketch him, to make some money. Like the regular starving artist. Why do want to know?"

"Maybe she has a crush on the robot," Mike laughed. His mother shoved his arm.

"Don't be rude," she said.

"Well, he's my present, so I ought to know where he is," Jaeda lied. She knew it wrong, but the lie wanted to come out of her for some unknown reason. It was a good thing her parents had bought it, though.

"Alright, well, are you hungry? You're mom's got potatoes, corn, steak…"

"No, I'm going to go to my room. I'll come down when my appetite catches up with me," said Jaeda and she ran back up to her room. Well, Sparx wasn't due back until the middle of the night. What would she do then?

"I'll stay up."



Every ten or twenty minutes, Jaeda would look out her window to see if a Lab truck came yet to drop off Sparx. She was aggravated that the truck was forty minutes late for their delivery. She saw her dad go help his partners drag the cylinder container that Sparx was brought in, and hauled it down into the basement. Jaeda waited for the men to leave and thirty more minutes to be sure that her dad was sleeping. She snuck out the way she had did the other night and when she made it down into the basement, Sparx didn't open his eyes just yet. She touched her fingers on the glass and then started to tap on it. Sparx twitched, but still didn't open his eyes.

"Sparx, you okay?" she whispered.

_Don't call me that._

"What?" Jaeda was confused for a second. "But, isn't Sparx your name?"

_No._

"Oh…Then what is?"

_Brainwave._

"Hmm…Brainwave," she repeated. "Where'd you get that name?"

_It's the one that master Perceptor gave me._

"Perceptor? Who's that?" That answered the "Percept" question.

Brainwave flinched. His face became sad and he looked away from Jaeda. And the girl didn't know if she had heard correctly, but it seemed like he was crying…

_I don't feel like talking about it right now…_

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know."

_It's okay. I'll tell you when I'm more comfortable…_

"Okay, then, _Brainwave_, what do you want to do tonight?" The robot paused and looked up in a different direction. Jaeda heard a sound from him that sounded like was thinking. "Don't blow up your processor on me from thinking."

Brainwave chuckled. _Don't worry about me._

"I have every right to be worried. My dad thinks of you mostly as his research project than he does as a living being. I have no clue what he's doing to you, so I'm just concerned."

Brainwave switched his focus over to her, his golden optics shined brightly.

"You know, my brother keeps making jokes that I actually _like you _like you."

_Uh… I don't understand._

"It's relative to the love question, so I don't think I should've brought it up anyway," she said sheepishly. Brainwave started to hum again, breaking Jaeda's concentration on the subject.

_How about we fly?_

"_Fly_? What the heck are you talking about?" Since when could Brainwave fly?

_Yeah, fly. See the points on my feet? I touch all of them and it gives them an energy boost to go straight up into the air. But, I haven't tried it yet…_

"So you expect me to be a part of a _test_? _No _way!" The last thing she wanted was dying before she went into college and had a real life. Not to mention she was hoping to become an author, romantic novel to be exact. But she hadn't tried it yet, due to the fact that she never experienced love. So her novels probably wouldn't get that good.

_Come on, please? I want to do this!_

"No way in _heck_ am I going do this! You could probably withstand the crash, not saying that we might, but I could die! My father might accuse you of murder, you know," she explained in the best way she could. Brainwave didn't buy it.

_How about I do a small test, and if it works out fine, you and me will go somewhere for a bit. You name it._

"_What_ are you talking about?"

_A view. You know, to see the stars. I bet you if I tried I could point out my home planet._

Jaeda couldn't argue with that. She figured that Brainwave's plan was simple and safe enough, so she decided to give it a go. She unlocked him from his container and helped him take off the cords connecting him to Dr. Scotts' server on his computer. They both walked outside and went far enough away so that no one could hear them.

"Are you sure you're going to be okay?" Jaeda sounded worried again.

_I'll be fine, I promise. Nothing will happen. _He tapped all three points on both of his feet and hoped for the best. Jaeda stood at least three meters away, crossing her fingers and praying to her God and, whoever Brainwave's worshiped lord was, that he was going to live.

_Here goes!_ He bended his knee joints to get a good lift off and jumped as the rockets on his feet busted to life and hauled him straight up into the night sky. Jaeda covered her face to not get any debris in her eyes. She looked up to find Brainwave doing all sorts of spins and loops and other tricks in the sky. She even heard him hooting with joy.

"Careful up there! You only live once! I think…" Brainwave did a few more tricks and landed down behind Jaeda, out of breath.

_Woo! You've GOT to try that!_

"Well, a promise is a promise." Jaeda lifted her arms up horizontally. "Don't crash into anything and go slow. I don't want to get sick." Brainwave smiled and walked up to her. He grabbed her; his arms underneath hers and wrapped around her back. Jaeda put her arms around Brainwave's back too, just for better security, and leaned her face towards Brainwave's chest, almost looking like a hug.

"Please don't kill me," she begged. Brainwave did his usual electronic giggle and kissed her forehead.

_It's only me. And you know I won't do anything to hurt you._

"Then don't," she responded in a sarcastic tone. Brainwave slowly levitated, to get Jaeda comfortable. He sped up a bit to get into the sky, high enough to make the girl dizzy, but not enough to make her sick.

_So where are we going?_

"Well, I was thinking we'd probably go to the smallest mountain over to the west," she said. "There's a spot there that has a good view of the city." She then thought about explaining to Brainwave what a mountain was, but he seemed to know already.

_That one there?_ He pointed to the right towards what was more a hill than it was a mountain.

"Yeah. How'd you know?"

_While I was hooked up to the computers, it was like exchanged information. Dr. Scotts got information on me while I logged onto the Internet and got my own data from there!_

"That's amazing!"

_Ha! You should expect nothing less from the assistant of Perceptor! _

Before Jaeda could ask any more questions, Brainwave took off at a speed that scared Jaeda half do death; she screamed as loud as her lungs could manage.

_Aww, come on, you big baby! _(Brainwave was starting to sound more human, thanks to his data exchange) _You go more faster in a car than you can up here!_

"A _race _car! And that's not what my stomach's saying!" she screamed to him.



They made it to the mountain in less than seven minutes. Brainwave hovered down to the smooth rock on top and set Jaeda back down on her feet.

_Was that fun?_

"Yeah! Except for the part where my mouth wrapped around my ears and my eyelids went over my head and everything!" she said sarcastically. Brainwave let out a loud electronic laugh.

_You're always so funny! Just be glad I kept my promise of not hurting you._

"_Yet_," Jaeda emphasized. "You didn't hurt me _yet_." She released herself from Brainwave's grip and redid her ponytail thanks to the wind slashing across her face. "And I had just took a shower."

Brainwave smiled again and looked out onto the bright lights of Boston thirty miles away.

_Amazing…_he said softly. Jaeda turned around to focus her attention back to Brainwave. His body reflected the lights that almost made him look like some sort of robotic god.

Jaeda shook her head. Why would she be thinking this? She couldn't actually fall in love with a robot.

Could she?

"It's great, isn't it?" she said as she walked up next to him. Brainwave didn't look at her but responded.

_Yeah. I never see anything like this on Cybertron. Everything's in light there. I like seeing the separation between the dark and the lights. It's kind of mesmerizing. _Whoa! Brainwave was becoming a half-poet!

"Focuses on one area; is that what you like?" she asked just to continue the conversation. Brainwave nodded. "Tell me, what's Cybertron like?"

_I'm not sure if I should answer. For one, I wasn't online enough to find out. And two, Prime might get mad at me if I told an alien about Cybertron. _He stopped to think about what he just said. _I'm sorry! I didn't mean it like that!_

"I get it. But remember, until you get back, _you're _the alien on this planet," she said. "If I went to Cybertron with you, then you can call me an alien."

_You know, you never answered my question the other night._

Jaeda shivered. She knew he was referring to the 'what is love' question. "I'm still not sure if I want to explain it."

_Well, I just wanted to hear from you. I went to a couple of online dictionaries and a lot of them said different things. What's your opinion?_

"Um." There was no way out. Brainwave was going to find out sooner or later; she just wish it wasn't _too _soon! "I think I would describe it as a feeling, an emotion. Sometimes it comes in different ways.

"You could get nausea. I know, it doesn't sound great, but I've never heard of someone throwing up at it. It's usually a weird feeling in your stomach; or tank in your case.

"You feel like you two are the only ones there in the area. They say that's true love, but I don't believe it. And it's usually called love at first sight."

_Stop there._ Jaeda turned her head to Brainwave. His face seemed a little blank with the exception of his wide eyes.

"Are you okay? Did I say something I shouldn't have?"

_No. _He stayed quiet for a few minutes and talked again. _Remember when I first saw you?_

"How could I _forget_?"

_Well, the two you described was what happened to me. I became half-blind even. I felt that I should always be close to you, no matter what._

"So that's why you got frustrated with the manager?"

_Yeah, I guess. I know this all sounds a little silly; a robot falling in love with a human, but it's all true._ He stopped. He wasn't sure what to say next. Jaeda could see him struggling for words. So she took a step closer to him and put her hand on Brainwave's lower jaw and turned his head to look at him.

"I think that's really sweet," she said. "I've never had someone love me before…"

_So…you don't mind? _Jaeda smiled and hugged Brainwave.

"Not at all," she whispered. Brainwave smiled as well and held her tighter. Both of them weren't sure how long they had stood there, but they didn't really care. They wanted it to last…

xXx

Author's Note: Okay, maybe the love part was a bit retarded. I'm only 13 and never had a guy love me before, but I would want him to say something close to what Brainwave said to Jaeda. (Hint that Jaeda is not me)


	13. We Sorta Slept In

Chapter XIII

_**Wake-y, wake-y, Jaeda! Come on, get up! We…uh… well, **__you'll have to see for yourself…_

Jaeda slowly stood herself up and rubbed her eyes. She looked to the left and saw Brainwave. He had his right arm over her waist.

"What…what happened?" she groaned.

_We sort of, uh… 'slept in'._

Jaeda took a look at her surroundings. She saw grass growing on top of rock and soil, with a few trees surrounding both of them. She looked up and saw a pink and orange ceiling. No, it wasn't ceiling.

_They slept on top of the mountain_!

"Damn! What time is it?!" she shouted.

_It's 6:52. Do you think we can make it back?_

"Without getting busted? Probably not. By now my dad would've had the police out looking for me," she said. She stood up on her feet and brushed off the dirt and leaves left on her pants. "We go now!"

_Okay._

Jaeda helped him get up. "Well, I guess we might not see each other for a while. I'm nearly late for school and my dad's going to be pissed!"

At the speed that Brainwave went, they arrived at the house in twenty minutes. They had already spotted a police car parked up in their drive way, so Jaeda told her robotic friend to sneak over into her bedroom window.

When they got in, Jaeda said "Help me!" She was taking off her clothes (hoping Brainwave wouldn't mind) while Brainwave was getting some new clothes for her. He tossed them over to her and she put them on as quick as she could. While she was dressing, Brainwave took a look at Jaeda's school schedule and figured out all of her supplies and put them into her backpack. When Jaeda was done putting her shoes on he handed her the bag.

"Now you try to sneak down there and get back into the container. I don't think my dad could've gone there yet. I'll distract him."

_Alright. Do you think he'll buy this?_

"He better! Just start praying, and I mean it!"

_Lord Primus help us!_

Jaeda gave a little laugh and walked down the stairs to see her dad talking to the policewoman and her mom crying on her husband's shoulder.

"Are you sure she didn't run away, Dr. Scotts?" the policewoman asked.

"Why would she run away? We weren't tough on her!" he answered in a raged tone.

"You'd be surprised, actually," she said as she wrote down something on her pad. "Do you think she was stolen?"

"I'm not sure. Everything is as it was last night. Even the front and back door were locked. I don't see how-"

"Hi Dad!" Her father whipped around to see Jaeda coming down the stairs and walking up to him. "What'cha doin'?"

"Uh…well, I uh…" The doctor didn't really have anything to say. He was sure his kid wasn't there when he went up into her bedroom, and now here she was, smiling up at him.

"Is this Jaeda Scotts?" said the policewoman.

"Uh, yes," Jaeda answered for her dad. "I'm Jaeda. Nice to meet you, Miss…"

"Stone. Amanda Stone. Were you up in your room just then?"

Jaeda found this rather easy. "Yes I was." It was the truth, wasn't it?

"All night?" Now it was time for a lie.

"Yeah. At least when I woke up I was there."

"Well, that's all I need. See you later, Dr. Scotts," the policewoman said.

"Thank you, Officer Stone," George answered coldly.

She tilted her hat and drove off in her car. Jaeda's dad ran his fingers through his head. As for her mom, she cried tears of joy and hugged her daughter.

"Oh, Jaeda!"

"Um, Jaeda," her dad spoke. "When I went up there, you weren't there at all." Jaeda took a glance behind her and saw Brainwave taking a slow crawl down the steps.

"Uh, I was in the bathroom. I got up early and couldn't go back to sleep." Unfortunately, lying was getting a little too easy for her. How long will it be until she lies to her _other _members of the family?

"In the bathroom?"

"Yep."

"What time?"

"What _time_?" She looked at Brainwave again. This time he looked back and put his index finger to his mouth. And continued down the stairs.

"Well, I woke up at 5: 45, I think. And that's when I went to the bathroom. When I couldn't go back to sleep, I started reading my history book, just to see if I had missed anything the other day." Oh my gosh, it made sense! Jaeda was shocked at herself!

"Reasonable enough," said Emily. "Don't you think, George?"

"I'll take it for now. Now get some breakfast, and _fast_! We're leaving in ten minutes."

"Okay, just let me go check on Br- Sparx!" She had forgotten that her dad didn't know about his real name. Before her dad protested, she zipped down into the basement.

"Brainwave, you still up?" she said when she saw his optics closed. They slowly opened and he smiled at her.

_Nice distraction!_

"Yeah, but I don't like lying to them." Then she changed the subject. "That was so awesome! It was like a movie! Boy and girl sneak back into the room and try to hurry up, the whole scenario! It was amazing!"

Both of them laughed and looked at each other again.

_So I'll see you when you get back?_

"Definitely! This time we go back before we fall asleep."

_Okay! Have a good day!_

"See ya!"


	14. Secret Out

**Chapter XIV**

"**Are you serious?! You and Sparx?" Tara said.**

"I told you, his name is Brainwave and yes, we fell asleep on top of the mountain. We didn't even remember falling asleep!" Jaeda explained to her friends. She was describing last night to her friends in the cafeteria.

"It's wrong, though. Leaving your house with some guy," said Carter angrily.

"Aww, is somebody _jealous_?" Tara teased. She shook his arm and Carter yanked it away.

"No!…Well, maybe a little. I was gonna ask Jaeda to the Winter Dance, but it looks like a piece of equipment got there before me," he mumbled. Tara's mouth went straight down that it almost touched the floor.

"You've got a crush on Jaeda?!" she nearly screamed.

"No! I was going to ask her to go as friends," he defended himself.

"Okay, stop it," Jaeda refereed. "Carter, there's would be no way Brainwave could take me to the dance. So I'll go with you. And Tara, don't tease and jump to conclusions."

"Can we just pretend I didn't ask you yet? I wanted to ask you in private. You know, a bit more comfortable; no one _teasing _and making_ fun _of you kind of private!" Carter gave a stare to Tara.

"All right, all right! I give up! I won't say anything. I promise," she said.

"Like I'm supposed to believe that," Carter said sipping is soda as he recalled the time Tara went around the school bragging about Jaeda's robot friend…boyfriend?

"So, are you two going out tonight?" Tara asked, changing the subject.

"Well, we were thinking on going to the top again. It might be a little more romantic now that we know we love each other." Jaeda was still bit uncomfortable saying that. She's had a few crushes in her life, but never one with a robot!

"Ooh! Jaeda's got a boyfriend, Jaeda's got a boyfriend…" Tara sang so no one else could hear her. Jaeda pushed her friend to make her stop and continued with her lunch.

Tara broke the silence by eating with her mouth full. "Stho, do foo fink he be able foo feat on yoo?"

"Huh?" Carter didn't understand a single word of that (as I'm sure the readers couldn't as well). Jaeda answered.

"No. I don't think there's any girl robots like him around here for him to cheat on me."

"Ah!" Tara gulped down her food. "Just curious. You know how I like to talk."

"I think we know by now, Tara," said Carter. Tara, irritated by the comment, threw a French fry at him.

"You be quiet!" she said.



Jaeda's day went by quicker than she had expected. It felt like only two minutes she was at school and now she was home. She threw her backpack down into the couch and walked over to her dad, going over some research papers. He had his fingers running through his hair. Jaeda bent down over him and kissed him on his forehead.

"Hey Dad. How's it going?" She grabbed an apple out of the refrigerator, took a bite out of it, and sat down at the table.

"Hi, Jaeda. Well, we ran some of the tests over again, and the results don't seem to be the same. It's strange though. We can't figure out what it is," he said tiredly. Jaeda was about to say something when Mike came running down the stairs. Jaeda looked up at him as he entered the kitchen.

"What's up, bro? Finally got out of hibernation?" she joked. Mike grabbed her arm.

"Come on, I need to talk to you," he said. Jaeda wanted to refuse, but Mike pulled her up and rushed her down into the basement. He pointed to Brainwave in his container. But instead of standing in it, like he usually did, he was on his hands an knees, coughing.

"I think there's something wrong with Sparx," he said. Jaeda rushed down and touched the glass on Brainwave's container. The gold and blue robot looked up at her with weak eyes.

"What's wrong?" she whispered so Mike couldn't hear.

_Virus…_

Jaeda's eyes went huge. She turned around to run back up the stairs, but Mike caught her arm. "Where are you going?"

"To get Dad. He can fix him."

"But what's wrong with him?"

Jaeda ignored him and ran up the steps and back into the kitchen to her puzzled father with Mike following behind.

"Jaeda?" he said as he looked up from his papers. "What's wrong? Where's the fire?"

"Dad, I think your computer downstairs has a virus. Sparx is sick!"

"What? Impossible! Robots can't get sick."

"Well, apparently, Sparx can," Mike said, backing up his sister. Dr. Scotts put down the papers and went into the basement to run a few diagnostics on Brainwave. He came back to his kids to give a report.

"Well, it's true. Someone hacked into the Labs' firewall and implanted a virus into Sparx. But it wasn't to kill Sparx or anything, it was just for the information we got on him."

"But, who'd do that?" said Mike.

"Hel-_lo_?" said Jaeda. "Anyone with information on alien life is bound to get a lot of money from it."

"Exactly!" George noted. "But the problem is that this is a non-point source type of virus. I can't locate where it came from."

"It's okay, Dad. Just make sure that Sparx gets well." Jaeda's eyes drooped.

"I'll try," he said, and went back down into the basement.

Well, forget tonight's date…

"Jaeda, were you talking to Sparx this morning?" Mike asked in a suspicious tone. Uh-oh. Was Mike able to fall for her lies?

"Yeah, was I too loud?" Bad question.

"Well, I sorta heard you, since the basement door was open, and I thought I heard you call him 'Brainwave'."

Busted, big time!

There was no way to lie to Mike about this. So she sighed and explained to him.

"Okay, don't tell anyone, but I can understand him, every word! He says his real name is Brainwave and that he was sent here just like how we send Rovers to Mars." She gave the rest of the story about the war on Cybertron and even the date they had the other night.

"You… and Brainwave… on the mountain… in the middle of the night?" Mike said slowly.

"We didn't really kiss at all; we only got as far as a hug," Jaeda defended herself.

"So, each word you're saying to me, _everything_…is the truth?"

"Yes, but you can't tell anyone! I'm afraid of what might happen to Brainwave _and _me!"

Mike paused for a second. He nodded his head. "Alright, but one condition: you clean my car twice a week for three months."

"What?!" Jaeda almost screamed. Mike drew a crooked smile across his face.

"Don't want to get in trouble with Dad? Then clean my car, starting now."

He gave her the keys to his Mustang and walked off.

"Make sure to vacuum!" he called from behind.

Jaeda grumbled, grabbed a sponge and towel from the bathroom and stomped off into the garage.

xXx

Author's Note: I'm working overtime with uploading all the chapters! There's 29, including the Epilogue D


	15. Virus

Chapter XV

**Hours turned to days, days into weeks, and than weeks **into months. That was only how it felt to Jaeda Scotts, though it was only two days. She made sure of that by checking her calendar to make sure she didn't miss the winter dance that was coming up in about thirty-four days. Carter didn't come by yet to ask her; he felt like he should wait a bit more until his sister stopped teasing him about it. George was continuing his research on Brainwave while his co-workers did his work for him. He felt that they shouldn't do that, since he thought they already had so much work to do, but they insisted. They cared more for Brainwave's "health" than they did for their own personal needs.

Mike was kind of enjoying tormenting his sister on her and Brainwave being an item, though they weren't going out because of Brainwave's repairs. Each time that he teased her about it, she threatened not to wash his car. But then Mike would threaten about telling her secret not just to Dad, but might even announce it to the school. And just when Jaeda's so-called popularity had finally and completely faded away.

"Everything will be okay, Jaeda." her friends kept telling her. But she wasn't too sure about that. Viruses only take about ten minutes to get rid of. It must've had an entirely different effect on Brainwave if he was still sick. George assured her that in at least one or two more days Brainwave would be fully functional again, as if he had never had the virus in the first place. Jaeda couldn't argue, she just hoped, that her dad was telling the truth.

Jaeda decided to try and find some kind of distraction until then, so on Friday night, she went to the movies with Carter, since Tara wasn't available; she had too much chores to do.

She and Carter decided to see and action movie; didn't want romantic because it would seem like they were on an actual boyfriend-girlfriend date. The only one available was _Terminator _and they thought "why not". Jaeda knew that this would probably be a bit insulting to Brainwave if he knew she saw it.



The movie was finally over with and since Carter's dad wasn't there to pick them up, they figured they'd just wait outside. Jaeda found herself looking at the stars, like how she did with Brainwave. She tried to guess where Cybertron was located, though she knew it was impossible without Brainwave's knowledge and sensors.

Carter caught her looking up with a smile on her face. He got off from leaning on the pillar and walked over to her and stood at least six inches away from her.

"Thinking about Brainwave?" he said, as if he read her mind.

"Oh, you're psychic now?" Jaeda joked.

"No, it's just kind of obvious," he smiled. Jaeda looked at him and smiled back.

"When are you going to ask me?" she said.

"I was thinking when we get to your house?"

"Is my dad going to watch, or did you want it kind of private?"

"Ha! Even though your dad knows me, he'll probably start glaring at me if I asked you!" Carter laughed. Jaeda laughed too.

"That's is so true," she said. There was a moment of silence as both of them this time looked up to the starry night sky.

A lunar eclipse was taking place.

"That looks so cool; how the moon can become orange," said Carter. "So, did Brainwave tell you where he was from?"

"He did. He said it was a planet called Cybertron. It's filled with robots with human intellect. Apparently he was built by the planet's top scientist. He calls him _Master _Perceptor," Jaeda explained.

"So why is he here?"

"He never answered me on that. I asked him, but he said 'Prime would get mad if I told an alien about us.'"

"What?! He called _us _alien?"

"Hey, when he's on Cybertron, he's a citizen, just like we are on Earth. To him, we _are _the aliens."

"Oh. I'm sorry, I just didn't think about it. Forget I said it." Carter looked away from Jaeda, but the girl saw the nervous expression on his face. There were two things Jaeda knew he'd really be upset about right now:

Reason one: Carter had a crush on Jaeda the whole time and is afraid Brainwave would take his position, even though Jaeda said it was improbable.

Reason two: he wasn't sure of the process in which he would go to Jaeda's house and ask her to the dance.

She stopped thinking when a grey Caprice drove up an honked the horn three times.

"That's my dad," Carter said, getting away from his thoughts and bringing Jaeda out of hers. "We're going by your house first, so tell your parents and your brother to go into a different room, okay? I don't think I'd like being stared at when I'm in this situation." His last sentence sounded a little grim.

"Okay," Jaeda said unsurely. She followed Carter to his dad's car and they both climbed into the backseat while the dad was reminding both of them to put their seatbelts on.



They got home at about eleven o'clock and slipped in silently, thanks to Jaeda keeping a spare key in her pockets all the time. Carter's dad shouted at him to come back to the car when he explained what he was going to tell Jaeda. All the while, the girl was nervous. She knew that she didn't have to be because Carter was her friend and there was really nothing to be worried about. So then she thought _Getting asked out is nerve-wrecking, one way or another…_

Carter was finally done talking to his dad and walked Jaeda inside. He closed the door and they both took a seat on the couch. Jaeda kept her knees locked together with her hands in between. She even found herself staring around the living room. As for Carter, he looked the other way, scratching his neck, wishing he was more prepared for this. The silence was finally broken in ten extra minutes.

"All right, don't laugh, promise?" he said. Jaeda nodded and tried to smile, but it was too hard when her heart was pounding inside her chest, almost like a man in jail asking for a release. No, begging and screaming was more like it, actually.

Carter scooted a little closer and looked directly into her eyes.

"Jaeda, out of pure honesty, I'm asking you; will you go to the Winter Dance with me?"

She was speechless, but she still held the thought that this was Carter, her childhood friend.

"Yes," she said softly, and that was all she could choke out at the moment. She gathered up a bit more courage. "I'll go with you to the dance, Carter."

Carter smiled and gave her hug. Knowing that this was pretty okay Jaeda hugged him back.

"Thanks," said Carter. Jaeda patted him on the back while still holding the hug. Jaeda counted he seconds and it was about twenty seconds until they both decided to let go before the other started getting uncomfortable.

"So, I'll see you on Monday, right?" said Carter.

"Yeah," Jaeda said smiling. "I won't get sick, I promise."

"Good. Because I thought you were going to get whatever Brainwave had."

"Okay, I know you're joking, but it's an impossibility. Get outta here!" Carter heeded the advice and ran out of the house, got into his dad's car and shouted another good-bye to her. Jaeda waved back and ran up to her room, not to disturb anyone.

Meanwhile, an unseen pair of golden eyes were staring out, looking angry and sad at the same time.


	16. Story of Cybertron

Chapter XVI

"**Jaeda! I did it! I really did it!" George said, running up **from the basement lab. He nearly tripped running into his daughter's room, but he caught himself by grabbing the railing on the side of the stairs. Jaeda woke up suddenly, confused why she had to wake up so early (5:49 am) to hear what her dad had to say.

"Mm…What?" she groaned, and rubbed her eyes when her dad turned on the lights.

"Sparx! I fixed him! He's as good as new! Come on down, I'll show you!" he said excitedly. Jaeda jumped out of bed and put on her purple slippers and ran after her father down into the basement.

"Just so you know, I let him out, so he could start moving a bit. Do you think you'll be okay?"

"I'll be fine, Dad," she assured him.

"Okay, just making sure." He opened the door and Jaeda made it into a race to get to the bottom of the steps.

She stood at the bottom, motionless, as Brainwave did the same. He was running a self-diagnosis on himself when Jaeda came down. He then realized his spark was beating ten times faster than it originally was.

_Jaeda…_

"Oh!" She threw herself to Brainwave, hugging his neck. He brought his arms around her and held her tighter.

"Are feeling better now?" she whispered, still aware that her dad didn't know about their communication.

_Yeah, I'm fine now. I know who sent the virus. _

"Who?" she whispered.

_Decepticons. I would tell you more, but I can't, not right now._

George finally made it down to the end of the stairs and saw both of them hugging.

"Is he a human now, or what?" he said to make a joke.

"Just glad he's still alive. After all, he _is _my birthday present."

_And a damn good one too!_

Jaeda tried not to laugh, so it was stifled. George yawned and walked back up the steps.

"Well, stay as long as you like. I probably won't be up until noon by now," he said. When he closed the door behind him, Jaeda looked back at Brainwave.

"Now you can tell me," she said.

_Well, Master Perceptor told me a story of a war that happened millions of years ago. At least forty-three. Anyway, it was a war over the All Spark, the most powerful Cybertronian artifact in the universe. Back before then, Cybertron was under two rulers, Optimus Prime and Megatron. Eventually, Megatron got greedy for the All Spark's power and decided to steal it. Thankfully Optimus got to it before Megatron did. So then the war started._

_Megatron devised his own group, or army, whichever way. Those who had their own reasons, or were _mad _enough to agree with Megatron pledged an allegiance and they became known as the Decepticons. But Optimus made his own army, the one's who protected the All Spark, and were named Autobots._

_The war lasted for centuries until the final battle for the All Spark, when it was lost into the far reaches of the galaxy. Megatron went after, hoping to find it. Someday, mark my words, he will. And in trying to prevent this, the Autobots used whatever they had left of the All Spark and used it to design us, my kin, the Mini-cons. They thought that if we were made from the All Spark we'd be able to find it._

_We had some recent attacks, and Decepticons started stealing Mini-cons for the same reason. I haven't seen any while I was online there, but I hoped never to see one, ever! Ah, well, looks like Primus didn't hear me on that request. _He started to laugh.

"Um, I'm sorry, but who's Primus?"

_The Cybertronian god. There's a legend to him as well, but I'll try to keep it short. He had a brother named Unicron, 'The First Decepticon" we call him. He became corrupt as Megatron and they started a war between each other. Primus made his own little army; The Thirteen: the first thirteen Cybertronians, all ranked in Prime, the highest._

_Unfortunately, one betrayed Primus. We don't know his name because it's said it was lost in time and space. So we call him The Fallen._

_The battle was over when both traitors were sent through a black hole. _

Jaeda was just amazed. Brainwave spoke this like it was straight out of some kind of history book. To hear more, she asked two more questions.

"Do you know the Thirteen's names? And what happened to Primus?"

_In order? Well, we've figured out two and we know their power._

_Vector Prime: the Guardian and Keeper of time and space. And a female, Prima: the original Matrix-Bearer. And before you ask me what that is, the Matrix is held by the leader of Autobots, it holds the essence of Primus himself. It's the only thing that Unicron's afraid of. We think the Decepticons have one: the Galva-Matrix, the essence of Unicron._

_Any more questions?_

"Uh, how about Mini-cons? Does the name actually mean that you're uh…" She moved a flat hand from her head down to her waist.

_Yeah, a Cybertronian is at least four or five times bigger._

_Got any more? You're making this kind of fun!_

"Sure. Since you just told me your history, how about the reason you're here?"

_Uh…Well, I guess this is a good time. We're actually here to find out what we're protecting._

"You mean, if the Decepticons come?"

_Not 'if', 'when'…_

Jaeda took a step back. "What do you mean?"

_I mean, they're already here on Earth. They're just hiding in plain sight._

"How can they do that?"

_The same way Mini-cons--except for me--and Cybertronians: transformation. For all we know, Megatron might be airplane at the Navy Base._

"What?! He can _do _that?!"

_I just told you, they _all _can! But I have a glitch in my programming: I can't transform at all. But I don't mind! I like being different._

"Hallelujah!" Jaeda said. Brainwave did the same electro-giggle, the one Jaeda missed for some period of time. When he was done, a sad look came over his face.

_You love him, don't you?_

"Love who?"

_The boy that came by last night. You agreed to go dancing with him._

"You heard?" Brainwave nodded his head. "Oh, well, we're going as friends, really. I figured since no one else would want to go with me I could go with Carter."

_That's his name? Hmm… Well, you could've asked _me_._

Jaeda laughed. "Okay, Brainwave, lat me break it down to you. _Numbero uno_: You don't even go to my school. And _dos_: you're not human, and I don't think the teachers would let you in the school. No matter how uh… 'popular' you are."

_Were you speaking Spanish just then? Or do you have a new way of counting?_

Jaeda sighed. "Yes, it was Spanish, but were you even listening to me?"

_Yeah, yeah, I heard! I can't go, got it. It just upsets me that you're going with someone else…_

"Hey, don't worry about it," she said as she walked up to him. She put her hands on his chests and kissed him on the cheek. When she pulled away and looked as his face, she noticed something.

"You're blushing," she noted to him.

_Wah!!! How can that even happen!?_

"Ha! I don't know, but I think it's kind of sweet. Hmp…You're becoming more human every day. Bet you can't wait to tell Perceptor, huh? By the way, where is he? Is he, like, my brother's car or…?"

Another sad look washed across Brainwave's face.

_He's gone… We ran into the Asteroid Belt and I haven't seen him since. My hypothesis: the D-cons have him and now they know where _I _am too. They'll probably put me offline at any time I'm alone._

Jaeda hugged him again.

"Then I'll make sure you're not alone."


	17. The Most Stupid Idea

**Chapter XVII**

"**There is a God! Well, I guess **_**two **_**gods might've helped **in this, actually: ours and whatever Brainwave's is," said Tara, standing outside after school with Jaeda. Strangely, Carter wasn't here.

"The name is Primus," she corrected her. "He told me the whole history between that guy and his big, bad brother."

"Really? He gave you a mythology lesson?"

"In our case it seems like mythology. But I bet if we tell the story of Jesus to him it'll be mythology to him too, don't you think?"

"Girl, when did you get so smart!" Tara said in a sassy way.

"Who cares if she's smart?" said a very familiar voice that Jaeda did _not _feel like hearing at that time.

"Go away, Kenneth," she growled, not looking at him.

"From the way I hear it, you and that robot are shacking up."

"Yes, Ken, we're together, but not in the way _your _mind works, all right? Leave me alone. Be gone!" Jaeda commanded. Kenny ignored her and sat next to her. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

"Seriously, Jaeda, a robot? I thought you could do better with someone else; someone your species, at least, and good-looking?"

"You mean you?"

"So you agree?" Getting irritated with the player, Jaeda slapped him across the face. He got up, holding his palm to the red handprint on his face and looked at her with angry eyes.

"Careful, child. You're knight isn't here to save you now," he growled.

"Don't worry; the princess can handle the ugly dragon all by herself," Jaeda snapped. "She'll tell the king and the kind will banish him from the kingdom."

"Good one," Kenny mumbled as he walked away, still holding his face. Tara stood up and looked Jaeda in the face with her mouth hanging down wide open.

"Oh…my…God! Way to go, J.!" She gave Jaeda a high-five and they sat back down to continue their discussion--before they were rudely interrupted.

"So what happened after the history lesson?" she asked.

"Well, it seems kind of sweet, but he heard Carter ask me out to the dance and he got _jealous_!" Jaeda answered.

"Get out! He was jealous of Carter? I robot from an advanced planet who falls in love with you is jealous of a regular human guy like _Carter_?"

"Ha ha! I know, it sounds a bit, uh, inexplicable but it's the truth," Jaeda said happily. She never knew she could have such a normal type conversation with Tara about Brainwave. Especially since they were talking about him as if he was a hot guy.

"Yeah, so after that I told him how it would kind of be impossible for me to fall in love with a life-long friend, and he seemed to understand. To make him feel better I kissed him on the cheek and--"

"Wait, wait, wait, hold it…You _kissed _him?"

"On the cheek! Now stop interrupting. Anyway, when I saw his face again, he seriously turned red. He was blushing!"

"No way!"

"Yes way! I never even thought a robot could do that!"

"So what happened then?"

"I told him he was becoming more human every day and asked him if he couldn't wait to tell his Creator, Perceptor. But, he got sad again, told me that the last time he saw him was a crash at the Asteroid Belt and he hadn't heard from them since. He told me that their enemies, the Decepticons, might have him held captive. And I'm going to quote him 'They'll probably put me offline at any time I'm alone.'"

"Wow, scary."

"I told I'll make sure he wouldn't be alone."

"How are you gonna do that?"

"Do you know a quick way to get sick?"

"Yeah, just stick yourself in the freezer and--Oh no, no way! Uh-uh, you're not getting sick just to hang out with B.W.!"

"It's the only way to protect him! I _have _to be with him!"

"No you don't 'have' to be with him! What about your pops?"

"Dad's busy at the Labs doing analysis on the data they're extracting. Mom's out working at Mickey D's, and my brother would give crap about him.

"I'm gonna get so sick, I'll be gone for two weeks!

"Oh, and in that time, can you write down the homework for me?"

"Sure," said Tara, sarcastically. "What are friends for?"



Jaeda did exactly what Tara had told her. She snuck into the cafeteria at night--with a little help from her brother's old spy set--and put herself in the freezer for at least five hours. That would guarantee at least five days or so. She snuck back into her house at four thirty and hoped that her skin would cool down but her head would heat up enough to make her sick.

It worked…

Next morning, Emily rushed into her room to try to get her up. Jaeda didn't need to act sick because she _was _sick. Unfortunately, five hours seemed like going past the sick limit. She was at the next level: bad fever.

"Oh, Jaeda, are you sure you're okay?"

"Mom," she choked, "I'm sitting in the bed, covers are over my entire body, I feel like I'm going to hurl, my head hurts like hell, and I'm heating up so bad that the bed might catch on fire any second now."

"Keep making jokes, kid," George said as he entered the room. He sat on the edge of Jaeda's bed and rubbed his hand across the top of his daughter's head.

"You're gonna be okay. If this family can fix a _robot _from being sick, we most certainly can help _you_."

"Thanks dad," Jaeda said softly. She drifted her head down into her pillow and fell asleep again. But she could still hear them whisper to each other.

"Get her some antibiotics. It's a cold flu and I can tell she has a strep throat. This might last for one or two weeks. She'll be okay, dear, I promise," said her dad.

"Okay, George."



Jaeda woke up at about two thirty in the afternoon. Knowing she'd just missed a day at school, her friend would be calling her in about and hour and a half. She slowly got up, but she sat on the edge of the bed, waiting for the dizziness to disappear. She opened her eyes and saw tiny dots in her vision as they gradually went away from sight. Thinking she was okay now, she put on her slippers and moseyed on down to the basement.

_That was pretty stupid, you know._ said Brainwave. _Why would you even _want _to get sick. It's not any fun._

"Believe me, now I know," Jaeda said, rubbing her eyes. "I wanted to do this to make sure you weren't alone all the time. There's no way I'm going to have a Decepticon come in my house and start tearing you up."

_I can take care of myself!_

"Not when you're hooked to the computer, you're worthless then! Face it, you need me as much as I need you."

_And what's _that_ supposed to mean?_

"It means I can't live one day without even thinking about you, and you need me to help you get your Creator back."

_You want to help get Master Perceptor back?_

"Hell to the yes." Brainwave smiled at her.

_Nice enthusiasm. You could make a great Autobot member, you know._

"Bring it, honey!" Jaeda said in a silly way. Brainwave cracked up and Jaeda smiled, thankful that something good came out the day. Too bad that did last long.

The dizziness came back and she fainted to the floor.

_Grrreeeeeeeaaa!!!! _Brainwave wanted to say _George! _but that screech was all the doctor could hear.

_Grrreeeeeeaaaa!!!!_

George heard Brainwave's cry and came running down the stairs in his black bath robe. He looked at Brainwave trying to figure out what was wrong with him. But Brainwave focused his attention over to Jaeda and George realized what the problem was.

"Jaeda!" He ran down the steps faster than he had ever gone before. "Jaeda, my daughter! Speak to me, say anything!"

Jaeda's eyes slid open but she couldn't see him clearly, just enough to know he was there.

"Anything…" she moaned and passed out. George looked at his daughter with a relived look on his face. He looked up at Brainwave who's face was worried.

"You really care for her, don't you?" he smiled at him. Brainwave gave a slight nod and a tiny smile. "Thank you."

xXx

Author's Note: Yes, sticking Jaeda in the freezer was retarded, but what can you do? She's crazy about Brainwave! X3 P.S. If any of you like this story, please pass it on to someone. I like getting good comments on my work! ;)


	18. Welcome To The Decepticons

Chapter XVIII

**He couldn't tell where he was. All he remembered was **walking away from the girl and he ended up there, in a dark room, a metallic room. Gears behind it were groaning and he had to admit that he was scared though he knew he shouldn't be. He looked around, hoping there was an exit out of there, but nothing came up. He ran his fingers through his dark hair, wondering what the heck was going on.

Finally, the wall slid open, like it was an elevator door. A _thing_ at least five times bigger than he was, stepped into the darkness with him. The only characteristics he could see were it's green eyes and the shadow of the propellers on its back.

"Are you human?" it asked, but not in a deep voice. It sounded as if it was a sort of crazy teenager that could go ape on him at some unexpected time.

"I said 'Are you human?'" it repeated. The boy just nodded his head. What else was he to do?

"Tell me, what's your name?" it asked again.

"Rodgers, Kenneth Rodgers," the boy answered.

"Do you know a Mini-con by the name of Brainwave?"

"No."

"How about a human girl, age fifteen, Jaeda Scotts?"

"Yeah, I know her. But what's it to _you_?"

"She's had contact with the Mini-con, and she's the only thing we can use to get him. But to get to Jaeda, we need _you_." Ken could tell that the thing smiled because of the new look in its eyes.

"Forget it. If Jaeda will talk to any guy, it's gonna be Carter, Carter Collins. Look him up. He's Jaeda's only guy friend. Well, I guess he _was _until that Brainwave guy you said came around."

"I've seen Carter, Mr. Rodgers. He's not 'bot, or _man_ enough to become a Decepticon."

"A what?"

"Decepticons were driven away by our rightful homeland, Cybertron. We want to take it back by getting the All Spark. We traced it back to your planet and we need a Mini-con capable enough to find it."

"You mean Brainwave, right? Brainwave can find this All Spark?"

"Exactly."

"So to get to Brainwave, you need me mainly?"

"There you go!" The thing threw his arms up. "So I'll give you a very easy question: Become a Decepticon, live on Cybertron, become immortal and get rid of the ones you hate…or stay human as we take over the entire universe under our leader's control; you'll be a slave. What's it gonna be?"

"No need to think, sign me up!" Kenneth said without any second thoughts.

"Smart boy," said a voice behind him. Ken looked and stared straight up at another _thing_. But this was didn't look anything like the one that was just talking with him. This one was more bulky looking and even had a deeper voice. One of its eyes was bigger, like it was an enhanced visionary sensor, like a monocle drilled into his head.

"You'll do fine," it said. The crazy one stepped forward and Ken was able to see him in light for the first time.

It was a robot! And it looked like a helicopter.

"Don't worry, Kenny. This won't hurt a bit!" The thing laughed manically.



Jaeda didn't know where she either for that matter, but it certainly wasn't with Ken. This place was filled with light, it was happier. She tried to open her eyes, but she could not find the strength.

"I sent them out over two quartexes ago, and still nothing. Is something jamming the transmitter?"

"No, Optimus, sir. The planet might be out of range."

"Impossible, Scrapper designed the ships to carry on for longer for more than a million deca-miles. Something's gone wrong, terribly wrong."

"Do you want us to find out sir?"

"No, I'll sit this one alone." Jaeda wanted to know where the voices came from and who owned them. She opened her eyes in shock to find more robots that had the same exoskeleton as Brainwave! There was a giant robot--as big as Brainwave had described--standing in front of (mainly) two others, having a discussion about…_something_.

"But, sir, are sure you want to do this by yourself? I mean, what about the Decepticons? They may be still out there."

These were the Autobots!

"I know, and they may be the reason that Perceptor and Brainwave have disappeared. I won't let anyone else go on this mission. Hotshot, I'm trusting you with the Matrix. If I don't come back, you're in control of Cybertron. But don't let it go to your head."

It was a good thing Brainwave had told her about this already. Obviously the red robot was Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobot army, and he was making this one, Hotshot, the new Matrix-Bearer until he came back from Earth to fetch Brainwave and start looking for Perceptor.

Wow, things were falling into place like an automatic jigsaw puzzle.

"Yes, sir!" said Hotshot. Optimus opened up his chest to reveal his spark chamber. He grabbed the Matrix, a spark so bright it looked like it was pulsing white and held by yellow handles on each side, and he handed it to Hotshot.

"I trust you now with this. Are you willing to fight for this?"

"Sir, yes, sir!"

This was more like an inauguration for Cybertron command than just a good-bye.

"Men, I'll be seeing you in the future," Optimus said.

Then there came shouts of "For the All Spark!" and "Primus be with you, Optimus, sir!" and a couple of "Long live Prime!".

Optimus walked to the side of the building, the balcony, and turned to face the crowd. He saluted them and flew off towards Earth…

"Prime, wait!" Jaeda shouted. She woke up to find herself in her bed again. Was it all just a dream or God--maybe even Primus as well--telling her that help was coming? Either way, it was depressing to her. What if Optimus took Brainwave away from her? Never see him again? She brought her knees up and hugged her arms around them. She began to cry.

"I don't want you go," she whispered. "I love you…"

I knock came on her door. She uncurled herself and shouted "Come in!"

It was her dad. He came up with a tray of food and a glass of apple juice.

"Hey, darling. I thought I heard you. Was it a nightmare?" he said as he set down the tray in front of her.

"No, I was trying to speak to someone, but they just disappeared as soon as I'd scream," she said, with the same feeling of 'not a lie but not the truth'.

"Well, maybe next time," he said. He got up from the bed and was fixing to walk out the door when he turned around and said "What were you doing down in the basement?"

Jaeda was already taking a bite out of her peanut butter sandwich when he had said that. She looked up at him with the bite in her mouth, trying to think of an excuse. She swallowed and said "He's not a present to me anymore, he's a friend."

"Too bad he can't talk, though," George said with a laugh. Jaeda didn't respond. She wanted to tell him so badly that she could understand Brainwave's language, she couldn't because she was afraid of the result of what might happen: her father would think she was crazy, or her dad might put a lock on the door for some reason she would never understand.

"Do want to tell me about the dream?"

Jaeda shrugged. She thought it was safe enough to tell the dream, after all dreams were supposed to be crazy. And as smart as her dad was, he'd connect the dots and figure out what was going on.

"Well, I was in this room, and, get this, it was filled with robots at least two stories high! Crazy, right? Anyway, the leader, I think, was telling how he was going to come to Earth to look for his men, in terms, here on Earth. He gave this sort of _thing _to one of the robots in front of him. It was really bright, like white bright. He called it the Matrix. No, I'm not talking about the dance or the movie, that's just what they call it. Yeah, so the leader gives it to him asking if he's willing enough to control the planet they live on. And let me tell you, this guy was enthusiastic about it! So after giving it to him, the crowd cheered him and then the leader just ran off into space to get here.

"It's insane, right?" That was the best Jaeda could put it without sounding like a _complete _lunatic.

"Well, all dreams come from some sort of insanity, don't they?" George laughed. He rubbed his hand against her hair, making it even messier than before. "Eat your lunch."

"You mean 'brunch'," Jaeda corrected. George shrugged.

"I guess it's that, too," he said and walked out of the room. Jaeda sighed, still worried about the thought of Brainwave getting taken away from her. She knew that there was nothing totally serious going on between them, but still…



"Grrraaaahh! What did you do to me?!" Ken screamed, but it wasn't exactly Ken anymore. His body was red and black metal. His eyes were like an insect's and his fingers grew to foot-long claws that could slice a rock easily. He had a set of four metallic wings on his back that hummed as he moved them. He felt his teeth and two were sharp, like was a vampire. In total, his entire body was wasp-like.

"One word kid: upgrades. You want to be a Decepticon, you have to go all the way," said the bulky robot, Ken learned that his name was Demolisher. As for the maniacal one he was Cyclonus.

"Told you it wouldn't hurt," Cyclonus smiled an giggled. "Ken" looked up at him, eyes turned bright red.

"I'm going to KILL YOU!" he shouted, and flew at him in an uncontrolled fury. Cyclonus was able to dodge him (being that Ken was still his normal size) and Ken flew into the wall.

"Careful," said Cyclonus. "Don' want make a bad impression when we take you to _him_." Ken got up, rubbing his head and groaned.

"Who?" he asked.

"He means Megatron," Demolisher answered for him. He lifted up Ken and held him in his hand. "You ready?"

"Ha!" Ken folded his arms. "What's the worst he could do?"

"Oh, you'd be surprised," Cyclonus said with another maniacal laugh.


	19. Home Sick

Chapter XIX

**Jaeda stayed in bed the rest of the day. She only woke up **at dinnertime but that was it. The next time was four in the morning. When she looked at the clock to check she moaned. She pulled the covers over her head and tried to go back to sleep. Didn't work.

She wanted to go downstairs to see Brainwave again, but she felt like he would know something was wrong just by looking at her. There was no way she could tell him about the dream! It might upset _him _too.

Knowing there was no way that she could get to sleep, she walked down to the kitchen anyway and grabbed a pre-morning snack; a bowl of applesauce. She had to watch what she ate since she was still sick. Just one week and six days, she thought. Can I make it without dying?

She reached for the Capri Sun juice in the 'fridge next when she heard something. It sounded like a clang from outside. Knowing, throughout all the horror-type movies she'd seen, Jaeda wasn't going to go out and look. There might be some kind of mugger waiting to pounce, or it was just her brother doing some kind of idiotic trick. But she didn't want either to happen. So, ignoring the sound, she closed the refrigerator door and sat down in the living room, put her bowl of applesauce on the coffee table in front of her, turned on the TV, and sat there watching _Fresh Prince of Bel-Air_. (She watched it all the time in summer, but then school started and she didn't feel like waking up at this time of day. She figured that since she was sick anyway she could watch a little bit until she got sleepy again.)

Though, being sick was never fun for Jaeda; runny nose, headaches 24/7, steam coming off her body (or at least that was what it felt like), and the constant cares and worries from her mother. Her brother didn't give any crap about how she was when he was sick. He just ignored her like always and continued on with his stupid girlfriends. Her dad was pretty calm, though. He didn't worry like Emily, but he still worried. And since Jaeda's mom could think straight when she was stressed out, he always told her what to do. Sometimes he would even write it down.

_Clank!_

There it was again. Jaeda rolled her eyes believing the fact that it could be her brother. There more she heard the more she knew he was getting desperate to scare her. She lifted herself up from the TV, stood waiting for the stars to disappear again, and walked over to the back door.

"Alright, Mikey, the fun's over," she said. Then there was shuffling over in the bushes in the far corner of the property.

"Mike, you're done. I know you're there, so come on, go to bed, and go to sleep. Wouldn't want to be tired when Mariah gets here, right?" She thought that saying Mariah's name would get him out. He was just obsessed with her now. But he still didn't come out.

"Mike?"

More shuffling and a twig snap to add with it.

"Michael?"

Something glowed red in the bushes.

Out from a reflex, Jaeda slammed the back door shut. She still looked out into the bushes and the two red lights would flicker from time to time, like blinking. Jaeda wanted to get away from, to not see this happen, but this time her body didn't and couldn't react. Instead she stood there like a frozen fish, arms felt like they were tied to her side and eyes staring out towards the bushes and she swore the lights were staring right back!

She flinched a few times, trying to get her body going and high-tail it out of the room, but she held position, body refusing to go. Somehow, the two lights had her under a spell that was unbreakable. She kept to this thought for there was no other in the back of her mind.

"Jaeda?"

The thought was destroyed.

Jaeda turned around to see her dad walking into the kitchen where the back door was and he was rubbing his eyes.

"What are you doing up so early?" he said through a yawn.

"Can't sleep," she said.

"Well, that's a change," George joked. He put his hands on his hips and looked out the back door. "What's out there, raccoon?"

Jaeda turned, expecting to see the lights stare out at her, but they had disappeared. It was like a typical scary movie.

"Just looking at the moon," she lied again. George looked up to the sky and saw a bright crescent moon.

"It does look kind of nice," he mumbled. Then he switched his attention back to Jaeda. "Well, I got up because I heard you calling for Mike. Was he trying to play another trick?"

"No. I didn't see him, but I heard noises, so…"

"Ah, damn squirrels. Anyway, turn it down some, your mother and I are trying to get some sleep after keeping watch while you were asleep." He smiled at her again and walked off. "Good night, sweetheart!"

"'Night, Dad." She turned back to look outside again. In the sky was not only the crescent moon, but something covered the bottom half to it as well.

"What the hell is that?" she wondered aloud. Giving up on guessing, she went back to the living room to watch Will Smith.


	20. Wasp

**Chapter XX**

"**What's takin' the kid so long? He should've been here a **megacycle ago!" Cyclonus complained. Having a new guy around always made it so complicated to him. He had to re-teach them each time they came in.

"Quit complaining, Cyclonus," said Demolisher. "He's just taking a check on Jaeda and that's it!"

"But does it take this long to 'check'?"

"Oh, stop your whining," a new voice came in. It was Megatron's right-hand 'bot and Air Commander to Decepticon battle fleet, Starscream. "I can't stand having Ken around either, being a shriveling human and all. The way I see it is two things: for one, he as no clue how to work his own wings and two: he ran off scared like the rest of them. He probably decided he isn't going to do this."

"He better come back," said another. This time, it was no other than the king of darkness himself.

Megatron.

"Sir, the kid's been gone for three hours. I think he ditched," Cyclonus complained again.

"He didn't _ditch_!" Demolisher screamed again at his comrade.

"Silence, both of you!" Megatron booming voice seemed to do the trick. "If 'Wasp' doesn't report back in thirty cycles, we'll just have to hunt him down and kill him."

"But why kill him, sir?" Starscream had to ask.

"To make sure he doesn't expose us. Penalty for running away is death." Cyclonus shuddered at this. He had to make note of that next time he was hungry and went off to look for energon on Earth.

There was a tap outside of the ship's hull and Demolisher went to the controls to open it. A small being flew inside and landed in the palm of Megatron's hand.

"Glad you decided to come back," he said. "What have you got on Jaeda?"

"She won't leave the house. Apparently she's sick. But she _meant _to be sick," said Wasp (Ken grabbed a new name when he got his new body).

"Oh?"

"I could see her thoughts as she was standing there inside the house. Brainwave knew that Starscream planted the virus and was afraid to be alone. Jaeda made herself sick by freezing herself and now she's 'forced' to stay at home for at least two weeks, er, two metacycles, sir." It took the "Ken" side a while to get all of the measurements right.

"Hmm, the girl gives up her own health to get to a Mini-con. How pathetic," Demolisher mumbled. Cyclonus, hearing that, gave a small laugh.

"Perfect," Megatron grinned. "While she's weak, we can take her. That will bring the Mini-con to us."

"Brilliant, Megatron, brilliant!" said Starscream. He was usually a suck-up, but it was all an act. Deep inside he wanted Megatron to go to the Black Inferno (as they call it). He even went to the Autobots, thinking that was the best way to take Megatron down, but he never listened to Optimus whenever instructions were given. He was more of a "do" kind of 'bot. So he went back to the Decepticons, and strangely enough, Megatron welcomed him back. (Dude must have some kind of glitch in his system…)

"Demolisher, I want you to become an Earth vehicle that's suitable for the human family but big enough for you to transform. We'll keep on them like ardro-hawks on prey," Megatron ordered. Demolisher nodded and ran and, thanks to zero-gravity, flew out towards Earth.

"Cyclonus, follow him and you'll at the Labs where Jaeda's father works. Your helicopter mode looks exactly like the one they have there."

"Yes, sir, Megatron, sir!" said Cyclonus. He transformed into an MH-53 helicopter and fell down to Earth giving another maniacal laugh.

"Starscream, be useful and take care of our prisoners for a while," Megatron grinned. Starscream gave out a groan in disgust and marched off to the brig.

"Wasp, go back down to Earth. We might not need you for some time." Wasp just nodded and flew off like the rest of them down back to his own home. It seemed pretty easy working for the Decepticons. Well, for him, anyway. The others had to study Earth and keep a watchful eye on everything going on the ship and on Earth, Jaeda specifically. They had to stay in hiding the whole time, not one sound, while Ken could walk around the city in human form. He would hate it if he had to stay still, and he was sure Cyclonus didn't like the idea either, nor Demolisher. For a bulked up guy like him, he seemed the type that wanted to show cannons and just fire away! Ken would be scared if Cyclonus did that, though. As far as he knew, Cyclonus was the most insane of the group. Perhaps the entire fleet.


	21. Jaeda's In Danger

Chapter XXI

"**I don't believe it, I **_**won't **_**believe it!" Tara was just telling **Carter about Jaeda nearly killing herself just to get closer to Brainwave.

"It's true, call her or something. Well, don't call her, Dr. Scotts might pick up. Anyway, she said it was the only way she could save Brainwave. She loves him."

Carter snorted. He folded his arms and his face looked like he was auditioning for the part of Grumpy.

"Hey, perk up. She's only gonna be gone for two weeks. She's not gonna miss, lover boy," Tara teased.

"Stop that!" Carter nearly shouted. "I asked her to go so we _both _don't look like fools. And what about you, who are you going with?"

"No one's asked me yet," Tara confessed. She shrugged her shoulders and Carter's entire face lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Ha! My turn!" he said. "You don't have a da-ate! You don't have da-ate!" He teased her a couple of times with a few comebacks made out of punches and swears.

"Will you shut up?! I only said 'no one's asked me _yet_'! There's still time!"

"Tara, the dance is in three weeks. I'm sure someone would've asked you by now to-"

"Excuse me?" Carter looked up at whoever was interrupting him. It was a boy that looked only a little older than Tara (perhaps because of his height too), dark skin, and, man, what a smile!

"Can I talk to Tara, in private?" he said.

Tara giggled while Carter stared up at him in a confused expression.

"Sure!" she said cheerfully. She stood up from the bench she was on and walked with the boy and held his hand. "Hold on." She walked back to Carter just to say one more thing:

"Ha, ha, and HA!"

Carter wanted to hit her, but he knew that would just get him in trouble with Jaeda later. Tara skipped over to the boy and asked him "What's up?"

"Do you know Jaeda Scotts?"

Tara's dream just shattered.

"Sorry, she's already taken."

"No, no, I don't mean for the dance. Do you know where she _is_?"

"She's at home, sick," Tara explained. What did this guy want with her anyway?

_That's not good…_

"Who said that?" Tara exclaimed, looking around. The voice came from nowhere, so it seemed.

"Huh?" The boy looked at her confused.

"I just heard someone say 'that's not good'. What's not good?"

"You heard that?"

"Yeah, you didn't?"

_Holy Primus! Brainwave was right!_

"Oh my God! There it was again!" Tara was ready to panic.

"No, no, don't worry. That was me. Look, I know I don't look like it right now, but I'm, uh, well, in a way, I'm Brainwave's brother. The name's Blackout. The rest of us are trying to get to Jaeda," the boy frantically explained.

"How do I know you're not one of those Decepti-thingies?" Tara said, one eyebrow raised. The human Blackout looked around and said "I can't show you here, there's too many humans. Is there somewhere else…?"

"Yeah, but try any moves on me, an' you'll get the boot!" Tara dragged him over to the side of the school building, no teachers, no staff members, no students. It was completely private.

"All right, prove me wrong," Tara dared him. The boy started to glow a brilliant blue and then white. In the white shape, he was forming. His shoulders broadened and his legs grew tires. His wrists grew out some guns and the Mini-con symbol was the first visible thing to appear on his body. Once the light died down, Tara could see for what the boy really was. He was about the same height as Brainwave, but the difference was that he had no face!

"What now, pop princess?" he laughed. Tara was standing there with an open mouth, trying to get it to move, to say words.

"Uh…" was about as far as she got.

"Close enough," Blackout shrugged.

"W-why do you need Jaeda?"

"I was the only one who escaped the Decepticons' ship up there in the ionosphere. They're planning to steal Jaeda to get Brainwave to follow."

"So wait, let me see if I got this now: to get Brainwave they got to get Jaeda. And if they have Brainwave…?"

"They'll locate the All Spark. Let me tell you, out of all the Mini-cons built so far, Brainwave's the only one who's more intact to the All Spark than anyone else! It'll be fatal if the Decepticons get a hold of him."

"Then what the hizz-eck are we waiting for?!" Tara said. "Let's go get Jaeda, _now_!"

"What about your classes?"

"Blackout, seriously tell me, what's more important: school, or saving the planet?"

"Don't need to ask twice, let's go get her!" With that, they sprinted off. And thanks to Blackout's cloaking device, they snuck past the front, easy.

xXx

Author's Note: Sneaking out of school to save your best friend (and possibly the whole world). Isn't life grand? Now, my sister asked me why Tara said "hezz-eck". It's because I got it from my dad. He likes to use "izz" in his word-play. Like in a full sentence: "The dizz-og is rubbin' his hizz-ead on the flizz-oor makin' a mizz-ess." Yea, it's weird, but totally funny when he says it!


	22. Kidnap

Chapter XXII

**Amazingly, Jaeda stayed up the whole day. Though, it got** pretty boring around the house. Her mom decided to sleep and her dad was cooped up in the Labs. A few times she considered going down to see Brainwave, but she didn't want to be a nuisance to him. After making him angry the other day, telling him she got sick on purpose, she tried to avoid him a bit. It was hard even so. It was weird in a way; her human self, so to say, wanted to go see Brainwave. But her spiritual self said to stay above the basement. Something bad was going to happen and she knew it.

She hardly ate the whole day. The only foods she had were crackers, chips, soda, water, and some soup given to her whenever her mom accidentally woke up.

"I never knew being sick was so depressing," she moaned to herself. She hadn't been sick in years, so she never knew what it felt like for some time. "Calm down, just two weeks, that's it." Problem was that two weeks seemed forever from this point. To make at least a little bit of time go by, she watched a few episodes of _Spongebob_, but it didn't help.

She turned off the television and started to think; she didn't want to listen to music, she didn't want to play video games, Nintendo or PC, and she didn't want to read. And going outside would probably be a bad idea too. There was only one option, but she couldn't refuse it no matter what: Go see Brainwave.

"Great," she mumbled, angry at her own decision. She got up from the couch and walked towards the door to the basement. She froze there, having some second and third thoughts before she touched the doorknob. Knowing that it wasn't going to hurt unless she tried, she turned the knob and walked silently down the stairs. She got to the bottom of the stairs and saw Brainwave, still as ever, in the glass cylinder, wires attached to him, synching data from his processor to the computer's at the desk left of him. Jaeda couldn't really tell, but his chest was moving, like he was breathing. She figured that since humans and Cybertronians were alike in ways, that was normal. Looking again, she saw he was breathing evenly, meaning he was sleeping. Or "stasis", Brainwave told her once before.

She sat at the base of the cylinder, her legs crossed, her elbows on her knees, and her head buried into her hands.

"I'm sorry for scaring you," she whispered to Brainwave. She knew he couldn't hear her, but she had to say this anyway.

"I'm always drawn towards you, no matter what. I'm at school, I think of you; I'm with my friends, I think of you. Hell, when Ken starts bugging me I think of you!" She looked over her shoulder; Brainwave was still in stasis. "I'm sorry for everything that happened to you; losing your Creator and going through a couple of sales, I'm sure."

_But that suffering led me to you._

Jaeda turned around once again, thinking that was Brainwave who had spoken, but he was as he was two minutes ago.

"I sometimes got to thinking what it might have been like if I hadn't even met you. Would I have ever felt like this? Would dad might have lost his job because he couldn't find any proof? Ugh, I know there's more questions, I just can't think straight. Stupid flu…" She held her breath for a bit, feeling something tickling her nose. She threw her head back and plugged her nose, knowing what was coming.

"A-a-aCHOO!" she sneezed.

_Bless you._

"Whatever," Jaeda said, looking back again. "If you're awake, do so now so I don't have to twist my head around so many times."

_But it's kind of fun._ Brainwave opened his eyes and the golden color flashed toward Jaeda. He smiled, as if he had just heard the best joke in the world.

"Don't tease me, I'm going through enough as it is," said Jaeda, not smiling. Brainwave's disappeared. He turned his head away.

_Sorry._

"It's okay. At least I'm a bit used to it," Jaeda said. "Mike does it all the time, actually."

_He teases you? Why? I thought you guys were family._

"We are; that's just what brothers and sisters do. We fight, we tease, we play, etcetera. One day, me and you might have a fight, like all other couples. Mom and Dad get into fights sometimes, but they work it out."

_You and me, fighting? I don't think I could bear it. And you'd probably be better at it than me._

"And don't you forget it; most women win arguments against their boyfriend or husband. It's kind of funny actually, since some men still think that they're more superior than women. Speaking of, do you have any women on Cybertron?"

_Not many. A lot were killed in the Great War. Some think they weren't powerful enough, I don't believe they should even think that. Others say the Decepticons might have killed them, to stop any Autobot growth. But I think they just escaped. Who knows? Maybe they found shelter on a different planet and they're still there, thinking the War is still going on. That's my guess at least._

"And an educated one too. Glad you're not the 'the women aren't tough' type. They deserve a beating from one then," Jaeda said. Brainwave chuckled.

_It would be great to actually see one beg for mercy of the female if they were getting a smack-down from them!_

Now both human and Mini-con started to laugh. Jaeda realized that coming down here was a good thing after all.

_Are you feeling any better?_ Brainwave said when they stopped laughing.

"Frankly, I feel like crap," Jaeda said solemnly. Changing the subject, she said "I think I saw something hiding out in the bushes last night." Brainwave shifted his eyes back towards Jaeda in surprise.

_What do you mean?_

"I think it was alive, you know? Two red eyes, glaring at me, like I was its next appetizer or something. Anyway, it went away after my dad walked in."

_I think it may be still there. I mean, why would it just run off?_

"Hmm, good question."

_Go check._

"What?"

_Go ahead and check, to see if it's still there._

"Are you sure?"

_Not entirely._

Jaeda laughed. "Alright, I'll be right back." She walked up the stairs again and made her way to the kitchen and to the back door. She stared out the screen door, hoping something wouldn't jump out at her when she looked. The backyard was as peaceful as it was this morning. Trying to see if there was a different thought in her head, Jaeda took a step forward and opened the door. It squeaked open and Jaeda stepped out further and let it close behind her with another loud squeak. A few steps onto the platform, and some more steps off into the grass and dew-dropped mud.

"I hope I know what I'm doing," she said, grabbing a shovel from the ground that her dad had used some weeks ago to bury some old junk that came from his lab. She grasped it tightly as if it was Excalibur. She stepped slowly towards the bush where she had seen the glowing red eyes and shouted to it.

"Hey! If there's some freaky looking monster in this bush, come out or I'll go in there and put the whupping on you!"

That did it.

The red eyes snapped opened. From them, something hummed like a bee.

"You interrupted my sleep," came a raspy voice. Jaeda was paralyzed. Her eyes turned into a complete O and her teeth clenched, trying to hold in a scream. She still held the shovel in her hand, posing like she was ready to strike it at the thing. It wasn't convinced.

"Put that down, you're being ridiculous," it said again. Jaeda obeyed, placing the dirt-covered shovel at her feet and stood back up to show she wasn't going to touch it again.

"Good girl," the thing said in a cheery voice, which wasn't working out. "Come here."

Jaeda shook her head.

"I said come _here_!"

Jaeda's body responded rather actual herself. Something pushed her into the bushes, an invisible hand, and sent her through some twigs and leaves, leaving her in the bush with the thing. (The bush seemed a lot smaller on the outside.)

She looked up to her captor and still saw only the red wasp-like eyes. It stared at her for quite some time, as if intrigued that she was sitting here.

"Who are you?" she said in a low voice, still trying to control the screech behind her voice.

"You'll see," it said. It moved closer towards her. Jaeda wanted to move back, but she couldn't; the transparent hand kept her there. The thing's head, at least that's what she thought it was, came over towards her neck. It had breath, she could feel it. Dark and cold.

"This won't hurt a bit, my dear," it said. Jaeda heard a _chi-luck _sound from her neck. A liquid fell down into her shirt and she realized she was bleeding. She knew she should scream, to get some kind of help, and to get the restrained one out, but she didn't feel like she should scream. She felt peaceful, actually. Her eyes drooped and she felt dizzy again. The thing moved away from her neck and she could tell it was smiling at her through her blurred vision.

"Told you," it whispered.



"Dude, my mama's gonna kill me when she finds out!" said Tara.

"Then don't let her," said Blackout in his human form. They were walking down a street, half-way to Jaeda's house. "Just do like Jaeda had to do with her parents: lie."

"Jaeda lied to her mom and dad?"

"Sadly, she's getting used to it. She wants to keep the relationship a secret."

"Oh," said Tara. In two seconds, her face went up again, catching something that Blackout had said.

"Wait, how do even _know _about Jaeda and Brainwave being together?"

"While I was still on the _Nemesis_, Megatron's ship, a spy about your size was talking about them. He told Megatron about them being an item. It's kind of remarkable when I think about a robot and an organic actually having true feelings about each other. Does this happen here?"

"What a robot and a human? No. The robots we got here don't have any feelings like you guys. They're programmed for one thing and that's what they stick to. They don't think like you, move like you, talk like you, or even _look_ like you!" Tara explained.

"Oh. So that's a 'no'?"

"Yeah, that's a 'no'." They walked a couple of more streets in silence, almost to Jaeda's house. Tara could see just around the corner. She wanted to run over there, but Blackout held her back.

"What now, boy?" she said. Blackout stood still and looked around, even in the air.

"Slag," he said. His face started to look worried.

"What? What is it? What do you see?"

"I don't really _see _it, I _feel _it," Blackout stressed. "The spy has gotten to Jaeda before us." He looked at the ground. "Now can even see his tracks."

Tara looked down too, expecting to see a footprint of some sort.

"You can't see it, no human can. My scanners can switch modes and right now I'm looking through the kind that can sense residual energy."

"This is why I hate being human now," Tara complained. "Everything an alien has, we don't got."

"If you think you're jealous, think again. We don't have other life on Cybertron; no trees, no animals, mammals, oceans, ground… The whole planet is steel, inside and out."

"Add 'life' to the short list of human advantages then," Tara joked. Blackout smiled and gave out a small laugh.

"Come on. Hopefully he didn't get to Brainwave." Blackout grabbed Tara's arm and ran down the street.

xXx

Author's Note: The reason why Brainwave asked Jaeda to go outside, is becasue the monster made him say that. The creature messes with people's minds


	23. The Nemesis

Chapter XXIII

**Jaeda opened her eyes slowly. She tried to figure out **where she was as she laid on the floor. It wasn't home, that was for sure. It wasn't anywhere she recalled for that matter. The place was enormous, it looked like the giant from _Jack and the Beanstalk_ just got some new real estate.

She turned her head left and right. She almost came to the thought that she shrunk, or everything grew. A humming sound came and started to crescendo as it landed next to her.

"Good morning, my sweet," the voice said. It was the unknown thing that bit her painlessly on the neck. Jaeda didn't turn around to meet the gaze but said "Where am I? What's going on? How'd you-?"

"Shhh…" it cut her off. "One question at a time please." It moved close to her, she felt the dark breath on her shoulder. "You're aboard the _Nemesis_, a well known spaceship. You're here because you're bait."

"Bait for what?" She didn't like how the creature had said the word.

"Not for 'what', for 'who'. That 'who' is your current boyfriend. We need him to find something we want."

Jaeda couldn't believe it. This monster was talking about Brainwave! Recalling all of the stories that Brainwave had recited to her, this was a Decepticon speaking to her, and a small one at that.

"I see you're scared," it said, breathing down her arm. Its hands moved up and grabbed her hand, intertwining their fingers. His were long and sharp, like claws that had been out-grown. The chill from it ran through her hand and made its way towards her throat, almost making her choke with fear.

_You'll be okay, Jaeda. You're strong! You can handle him!_

Jaeda swore she could hear Brainwave's voice, but he was nowhere nearby. The thing behind her flinched.

"You two are connected. That's good; the feeling to save you will get stronger inside him the more you're away. Very good…" The last words became a whisper. The monster's breath moved up her arm and back toward her neck. Then it reached her ear, sending the cold to the brain which transmitted it through all of her body's systems. It was painful and pleasing, a mix that shouldn't, but did, go together.

"Feels amazing, doesn't it? The different feelings. Especially when you're under my control."

That was it! Jaeda realized that this Decepticon had her under a spell!

"Once you feel it, there's no escape. When you're in my power, you always feel pleasant, no matter what. You feel other things, but pleasantness will stay with it like a best friend."

She could feel it now. The monster moved across her face and touched her cheek. His face was right against hers. Jaeda felt a temptation to look.

"Give in, Jaeda," it whispered, and moved even closer…

"Quit foolin' around, Wasp!" said another voice. The creature backed away from Jaeda's body, giving her some more room.

"I was busy," he said.

"Yeah, busy getting busy. Now bring her in, Megatron wants to see her. And keep her under control."

"Don't worry, I will…" Wasp moved back to Jaeda and picked her up and placed her across his chest, holding her up with his arms. This time, Jaeda was able to see him. The body described the name; wasp-like, only red instead of yellow.

He walked her into a room, following the one who had entered, which looked like a helicopter. He went over and stood next to a bulky-looking Decepticon.

"Looks like you didn't need the Earth mode after all," he said to him. The Decepticon kept his face expressionless and looked down at Jaeda. Jaeda stared back at him, at the one green eye that was bigger than the other. Sensing that it was most likely scanning her, she turned her head away.

Wasp stopped in the middle of the room and set her down. Jaeda got on her knees, to weak to stand, thanks to the bite she received. Her head stared down to the floor, waiting for some to give her instructions.

"Look up," Wasp whispered in her ear as he backed away. Jaeda slowly lifted her head and looked at the Decepticon a few yards away from her. She felt something dark about him, more dark than the what the others had felt like. She felt that this was-

"Lord Megatron," said a jet-looking Decepticon standing next to the throne-like seat the commander was in. It bowed down as Megatron stood up and started to shrink. Jaeda thought she was just imagining it, but he shrunk down to human size.

"For your convenience," he said. He smiled at her and walked to her. He stood at least six inches away from her. Jaeda tried to look up, but only got to looking straight, at Megatron's knees.

"Wasp," Megatron said. Knowing this was a command, Wasp got behind Jaeda again. The unseen hand grabbed her by the back of her night shirt and got her to stand up. She looked Megatron in the eyes and kept a straight face, staying strong like Brainwave had told her.

Megatron took a few steps closer and touched her hair, pulling it back over her ear. He gave the same stare that Brainwave had given each time he was with her. She hated how this was so much alike but so different. And now, another thanks to Wasp's spell, it was pleasing.

"I can see why the Mini-con likes you so much. You have a brilliant spark, so to speak. I'm sure you call it something else," said Megatron.

"Heart," Wasp corrected his leader. "It's called a heart."

"Hmm, sounds so much alike." He kept his gaze on Jaeda. "Are you scared?"

"Terrified," Jaeda spoke out. The Decepticon was surprised to hear it.

"Yet brave," he said. He acted as though Jaeda was a guest of honor in the way he was speaking to her. But Jaeda didn't entirely believe it. He moved back one step.

"How much have you heard of the Decepticons?" he asked.

"Enough to know that they're foul," Jaeda said. She felt adrenaline surging in her body. She was telling the truth that she was scared, but yet she sounded brave; and she had herself convinced that it wasn't her own mouth speaking!

"I see the Mini-con has told you about the War?"

Jaeda nodded.

"Lies. All of it. We wanted to use the power to create another Cybertron, but the Autobots refused. They drove us away from our land. We have tried to go back several times, but it ended up in devastation. Do you believe me?"

"No. I may be just a human, but I'm not stupid. I know the title Decepticon stands for 'deception'."

"She's also a smart-ass!" the helicopter cried out.

"Silence ,Cyclonus!"

Jaeda couldn't help but let out a faint giggle. If Cyclonus was on the Autobot side, he'd be a best friend to her.

"All right then, it looks like I can't trick you. That leads me to telling you this: we're going to make Earth the new Cybertron. The human race will be extinguished."

"You can't do that!" Jaeda lashed out towards him, but Wasp caught her from behind.

"Keep her restrained!" Megatron ordered. Wasp obeyed, keeping a tight grip on her. "Tell me, girl, where is Brainwave?"

"I won't tell you _anything_!"

_That-a girl!_

"Fine. Wasp?"

Jaeda could tell that Wasp was smiling. He reached his face over to her neck. She felt the soft wind from him and it stopped as he gave her a kiss on the neck. Feeling the spell and its effect, she couldn't help but answer Megatron's question.

"1284 Beachline Road, Boston, Massachusetts." Megatron smiled, happy with the answer and moved on.

"In what section of the residence?"

Wasp kissed her neck again.

"The basement. He's wired to the computer."

"Brilliant, Wasp! Keep her in control." His smile grew larger. "Is there security I need to worry about?"

Wasp kissed her again, twice, and moving up the neck with each kiss.

"No. There's nothing."

"Good. Now, one more question: will you stay with the prisoners, or will you with Wasp for the night?"

Wasp started to feel excited, Jaeda knew it. His kiss made it to behind her ear and he whispered "I promise we'll have fun…"

_Don't!_

"The Mini-cons," Jaeda answered, breaking herself from Wasp's control. His head jerked back and she felt the his grip on her arms loosen. Megatron's face turned from satisfaction to disappointment.

"Very well. Wasp, take her to the hold." He walked away, slowly growing back to his original size. Wasp moved his mouth to her ear.

"Screw you, then," he hissed. The blow from the words were colder than ever.

He pulled her down into the stockades. There was little light coming into the room. Jaeda saw all of the Mini-cons held that were brought in over the years. They stared all at once at the human that was to join them in their keep.

"Why?" Wasp hissed, stopping before he sent her into the prison.

"What do you mean?"

"That was his test, Jaeda. Stay an Autobot and die, or become a Decepticon and live."

"Why would I choose to be a Decepticon?" Wasp moved to her ear again.

"I did."

Jaeda's body went into shock. The familiar voice of Kenneth Rodgers was seeping through Wasp's throat.

"I chose to be Decepticon, to be on the side that has power, and to live." He paused for a moment. "We could've been together. Come with me…"

Now it was Jaeda's turn to say something. She leaned towards his ear.

"I'd rather die protecting the All Spark, to keep it away from the likes of you," she growled. Some faint cheers came from behind her, from the Mini-cons. Wasp flinched and snarled. His voice changed from Ken to Wasp as it got shriller and shriller.

"Just like a worthless, _pathetic_, AUTOBOT!"

He shoved her into the cell and slammed the barred door shut. Jaeda fell back into the hard, steel ground. Three Mini-cons came to her side while two others stood between her and Wasp, ready to fight.

"Pleasant dreams, human!" Wasp screamed as he slammed the iron door behind him, blocking off all light. The only illumination was from the Mini-cons' eyes.

_Well done, Jaeda. Well done…_

xXx

Author's Note: Go, Jaeda! Ish yo birtday! We gonna pahty like ish yo birtday! Jezz...I gotta keep reminding myself that I'm white XP So, I had to make Jaeda go all rough and tough on Megs because I remember something that happened. I can't remember where I saw the episode, but I remember thinking "You ass! What's the root word of Decepticon, you retard?! Seriously!" A little over the edge, but that's what I was thinking. But it's true! (The guy's still stupid to me, but I can't remember where i saw it!)


	24. Scott Residence

Chapter XXIV

"**I'm not sure about this, Blackout. What if they say we're **crazy or something? Then we go to a nut house?"

"What's a nut house?" Blackout wasn't used to the way humans had talked. To him it was like they spoke in riddles. Right now he was thinking a nut house was a place to store, well, nuts.

"A nut house is a psyche ward, a place where crazies are put. And don't feel like going into one at this age," said Tara.

"Don't worry," Blackout said, putting his arm around her shoulder. "One look at my Mini-con form and they'll believe anything you tell them."

"But what about Brainwave? He's gonna be in tears…I think…if you tell him Jaeda's gone."

"He loves her that much? Hmm." Blackout grabbed her hand and they both ran off into the moonlit street. Tara had to jump to be able to catch up with Blackout's running pace. She felt like her arm had almost disconnected from her shoulders.

Once they got to the house, Tara hesitantly walked towards the door and knocked three times. She took a step back as George opened the door.

"Tara! Oh, thank goodness you're here!" he said as he pulled her in, taking Blackout in as well. "You won't believe this, but Jaeda's gone missing! I came home today, the back door was cracked opened and Jaeda was nowhere! Do you know where she might have gone?"

"Um, well, this guy has an idea, I'm sure," said Tara, pointing to Blackout. George looked at him, confused.

"Uh, does he even _know _Jaeda?" he asked. Blackout took two steps forward to him.

"Sir, you promise not to call for help?" he said. George gave him a suspicious look and nodded his head slowly. Blackout gave a nod of his own and took a deep breath. He soon became engulfed by bright light and his body morphed into his Mini-con form.

George stood still. His eyes became as big as they could ever get. He jerked back and fell backwards into the couch. He put his hand on his chest, keeping his eyes on Blackout.

"I…can't…breathe…!" he choked. Tara sat down next to him, telling him to inhale and exhale slowly. At least ten minutes went by while the doctor was getting his respiratory working normally again.

"Do you…mind telling me what's going on?" he said to Blackout.

"I'll try to let Tara explain," he said. "Where's Brainwave?"

"Who?"

"Oh, he doesn't know," said Tara to Blackout. Then to George. "He's looking for Sparx."

"Oh, well, he's downstairs, hooked up to the computer." He paused for a second. "His name is Brainwave?"

Blackout didn't answer. Instead, he went to look for the door to the basement. Tara sat next to him, telling about Jaeda's relationship (but not in complete detail) with Brainwave. Told him how Brainwave got to come here, hopefully remembering what Jaeda had told her.

"Hey," said Blackout, coming back up. "Is it okay if I unhook him?"

"Uh, no! Go ahead, by all means!" George said. Blackout scooted back down the stairs to the basement and started unplugging Brainwave.

_Blackout?_

"Hey, buddy," he said, taking the wires carefully out of his brother's body.

_When-How did you get here? And why are you here?_

"It's a long story," Blackout answered. "But in the short term, I escaped the _Nemesis_."

_WHAT?!_

"Long story," Blackout repeated. He finished unplugging Brainwave from the computer. He brought him outside of the glass cylinder.

_Where's Jaeda?_

"That's exactly why we're here," said Blackout. Brainwave's optics grew large with shock. Blackout didn't give him any time to say what he wanted, he dragged him up the stairs, ignoring the questions he was given. They saw Tara still talking to George.

"Wait a minute, back up. My little girl, and Spar-I mean, Brainwave…are _together_?" he said, still trying to make sense out of it.

"Yes, and now she's been captured, by the Decepticon spy, no doubt," said Blackout. He placed Brainwave on the chair across from them.

_I can't believe she's gone. I knew something was controlling me when I told her to go look outside. I wasn't strong enough to fight that…_

"Hey, hey, we'll find her, okay?" said Blackout.

"What? What did he say?" Tara wasn't able to hear Brainwave's speech. For some reason she was only able to understand Blackout.

"He misses Jaeda," he explained.

"He's not the only one," George said in almost a murmur. He spoke up. "So how are we going to get her back?"

_I'll think of something._

"He says he'll think," Blackout translated.

_Vroom! _A car.

Brainwave's face lit up as he heard Mike pull into the garage. Blackout and George were the only ones focusing on his face, wondering if the plan might have struck him already.

_I need to borrow Mike's car._

"What was that?" said George.

"He's lost his processor," Blackout said.

xXx

Author's Note: If you think you know what's going through Brainwave's head, tell me what you think and then read on. The more the better!


	25. Jolt

Chapter XXV

**Jaeda wanted to stay on the floor. She felt better there, **like nothing could really hurt her. Or maybe it was the Mini-cons' presence that made her feel safe. She felt one touch her arm.

"That was amazing how you stood up to Wasp like that!" it said. By the sound of his voice, Jaeda felt her mouth curl up a bit in a tiny smile. "Consider yourself a member of the Autobots already!"

"Careful, Jolt," another said. "She's got 'Brainwave' written all over her."

"Ah, mute it, Reverb," said Jolt. "I'm just trying to make her happy."

"Happy? While on the darkest spaceship of all time? Keep dreaming, Jolt," said a different voice.

"Six-Speed's right," said Reverb. "The _Nemesis _isn't supposed to be a happy place."

"Quit being downers!" Jolt nearly shouted. "It was worth a try, though."

"And it was a successful try," said Jaeda, getting through the conversation. She lifted herself up, still on her legs, to see Jolt's eyes; a bright blue. "Thanks."

She could tell he was smiling just by the change in his eyes.

"No problem!" he replied. Jaeda smiled. She liked how he stayed positive in a place such as this.

"Um," she looked to Reverb, at least she thought it was. "How did you know that I met Brainwave?"

"His energy is all over you, or my scanners must be broken," he said. "What I'd like to know is _how _you met him." Jaeda started telling the story of how she wanted to go on the field trip to the museum, and when she heard the two girls talking about the "new attraction". She told how she was called up to test if Brainwave was no joke and they way he had looked at her when he saw her up close. (Jolt and a couple of other Mini-cons let out some "aww's") Then it came to her birthday and she decided to stop there. But the Mini-cons told her to keep going.

"Come on, it's getting good!" said Sparkplug, who Jaeda learned as Optimus Prime's Mini-con.

"Yeah! If you're going to stop, it's going to be at the point of when you came here!" Hotwire agreed; Jazz's Mini-con.

Jaeda laughed at how they were desperate to hear a story like this. She didn't think it was that good herself. She thought it sounded cheesy coming from a human. But she gave in and told them about when they woke up late on the mountain and nearly gave her dad a heart attack (a couple of laughs sounded there). Then it came to the virus that wasn't tracked down.

"Actually," said Jolt, "That was Starscream, the jet guy. He's the one who planted the virus."

"Oh," said Jaeda. "Well, remind me to make a plan to get revenge on him then." She continued; the way she became sick, Wasp hiding out in her backyard, and then she went into full detail on Megatron's interrogation.

"Wow, lots of crazy stuff, huh?" said Jolt. Reverb yawned.

"Well, I'm going to stasis," he said, walking towards a corner. "I guess that was the bedtime story for tonight. 'Night guys."

Everyone else greed with Reverb and found their own comfortable place to sleep. Jolt stayed next to Jaeda, but then she said-

"Do you mind if I stay with you for tonight?" Jolt looked at her.

"Uh, not at all!" he hesitated.

"Well, I can sleep by myself, if you want. You sound kind of nervous."

"Truth be told? You're just so beautiful, and since you belong to Brainwave, I thought you didn't want to."

"You think I'm pretty? All the popular girls at my school don't think so. That's why _I'm _not popular," Jaeda said sadly.

"Let me tell you something; there's a difference between hot and beautiful, okay?" Jolt said, in his perk-up tone. Jaeda gave him a hug.

"Thanks," she said. Jolt hugged her back.

"We better go to sleep," he said. "Can you get up?"

"Do you know how many times Wasp has put me under that spell of his? At least, uh…six or seven, so I'm a bit drowsy."

"I'll carry you," he said, putting his left arm under her knees and his right arm on her back. Jaeda swung her arms around his neck, afraid to fall down. "Don't worry, I won't drop you." He carried her over to the side of the wall in the back of the cell. He laid down, keeping Jaeda on his chest. He took a couple of deep breaths.

Jaeda felt his body heat up. She touched his chest to be sure she wasn't going crazy, again.

"Heating system," Jolt explained. "I figured you needed it."

"Thank you, again," said Jaeda, and put her head on his chest. She fell asleep faster and more easily than she ever had before.

_Good night, Jaeda._

xXx

Author's Note: Aww! 3 In'it cute?! I first thought to myslef that maybe Jolt would be a lying about Jaeda needing the heating system, because we all know what happens when a TF overheats from seeing a female they like, right? But then I thought 'Eh, skip it. Jolt's just being a good friend' and that's all he's being, okay?


	26. Morning

Chapter XXVI

"**No way, dude! This is **_**my **_**car!" said Mike.**

Brainwave said something in his Cybertronian language (since he still couldn't speak English like the other Mini-cons). So Blackout translated, saying exactly what he had said, and even in the same tone.

"'Do you want to save Jaeda or not?'" said Blackout. "'She's your sister and my girlfriend, we love her both! Now let me borrow the car!'"

"No! My money, my car!" Mike agued.

"Son, I want Jaeda back more than you do, that's for sure!" his dad butted in. "Let Brainwave use your car!"

"But why does he even _need _my car?" Mike continued to rebel. Brainwave said another thing and Blackout passed in onto Mike.

"'Rodimus'," he said. Than he gave his own comment. "Okay, I don't know what that means, but it sounds good!" Brainwave told his brother what it meant and Blackout seed to get excited. He turned to Mike.

"Man, you _have _to let him borrow the Mustang! He's gonna turn it into a _Cybertronian_!"

"A what-now?" said Mike.

"He's gonna make your car come alive!" Blackout explained. "You get to keep it." He thought that would probably get him to agree. He figured a teen like Mike would just do anything to have their car alive.

"Your on!" he said. "The Mustang's yours!" He threw the keys to Brainwave. The Min-con handed them to Blackout, saying something else.

"He said 'These won't be necessary'."



Morning.

Jaeda never thought she could wake up from sunlight coming into the _Nemesis_. All fear, amazingly, had passed. She lifted her head up and rubbed her eyes. She looked ahead to see Jolt for the first time in true light. He resembled Cyclonus in some ways. The difference was the coloration, the size, and the two symbols: Mini-con on his shoulder and Autobot on his chest. She saw how peaceful his grey face had looked in stasis; another resemblance of Brainwave. Had all Mini-cons and Cybertronian looked the same up close?

She put her hand on his lower jaw. He moved slightly.

"Mm…" he moaned. Slowly, his eyes began to emerge and e stared over to Jaeda who stared back. Jolt smiled, what a cute one it was too! She couldn't resist but to smile back.

"Morning," he said softly. He moved his hand towards her hair and pulled it back behind her ear. Jaeda giggled.

"You know, you're the third Cybertronian who's ever done that to me," she said.

"Sorry," said Jolt, moving his hand away.

"I don't mind. With Megatron, I _do _mind, but you and Brainwave are an exception." She hugged him around his neck. Jolt responded by placing his arms around her back, returning the hug.

"You know, I ought to put you and Tara together," she said. Jolt flinched.

"Do you think she'll like me?" he said nervously.

"Of course! You too are a lot alike actually. Well, except Tara's got a mouth that won't stop from telling secrets." Jaeda didn't want to say she had a "big mouth" because that might have confused Jolt.

"I'll make note of that," he said, making Jaeda laugh.

"And you both know how to make me laugh!" she said. She stopped hugging him when Reverb woke up and gave a comment.

"What did I say, Jolt?"

"Hey, I was keeping her warm," Jolt argued.

"Whatever," Reverb replied. Jolt stated to get angry.

"For the love of Primus, Reverb! Each time I do something, you think it's something else!"

The two Mini-con brothers fought back and forth with each other, waking up the other Mini-cons. They started to complain to the bickering siblings.

"Will you two just _shut up_?!" said Jetstorm.

"We're trying to sleep!" Jetfire finished. Jaeda looked at the two, sitting next to each other. If she didn't know any better, Jaeda would say they were twins!

"All of you be quiet!" Sparkplug said, just now waking up. No one heard him. Wasp had to come down. He looked as if no sleep at all had gotten to him.

"SILENCE!" he shouted in his raspy voice. Every Mini-con obeyed, except Jolt. Thanks to Jaeda he had courage to step up.

"Shut up, traitor! You turned on your own kind just to have power and to live!" The Mini-cons were astounded! Jolt was usually the shy type. They figured if Jolt could stand up to Wasp, so could they. Verbal fights broke out between both sides. Jaeda stood in the corner, laughing her head off. It was pretty amusing to her to se how brave the Mini-cons became since she had stood up to Wasp last night.



Brainwave worked night and day to redoing Mike's car. He took out a few parts and put new ones in. Blackout helped in in giving him the parts he needed.

"It's starting to look like a true Cybertronian in vehicle mode!" he commented.

_Thanks! I didn't think I could do it, actually._

"You're Perceptor's Mini-con, what else did you expect?"

Brainwave let out a laugh. It quickly became silent as he thought of his master being tortured by Decepticons. Then that made her think of Jaeda. How was _she _holding up against the foul Cybertronians?

He shook his head, trying to get rid of the thought. He continued working on what was to be Rodimus when Mike stepped in to check out the progress.

"How's the car doing?"

"It's going fine! Two or three more megacycles and he'll be shooting Decepticons in no time flat!" Blackout reported.

"Right…" Mike replied as he left. Just like how Mini-cons thought human speech was strange, Mike believed the Mini-con speech was even stranger. He gave the news back to his dad and his mom.

"Perfect!" said George. "I'm getting my daughter back! Is there anything I could do to help?"

"Well, I think they might want you to find a space suit if you're really going," Mike joked.

"No time for laughs, son. We want Jaeda back so, by God, we're getting her _back_!"



The fight between Mini-cons versus human-turned-Decepticon raged on for about ten more minutes before Starscream had to come in to break up the quarrel.

"Do you _mind_?!" he shouted. All at once, the miniature robots stopped shouting. "Some of us are trying to get some sleep! Wasp, if I see you or even hear you fighting loudly with the Mini-cons again, I swear, I'll run you through the nearest space bridge, no coordinates! You'll just have to live with wherever you end up!"

"Try it, and you'll be singing soprano!" Cyclonus said, coming in. He picked up Wasp by the wings. "You and me are gonna have a little chit-chat."

Wasp screeched and struggled as he tried to free himself from Cyclonus' grip. He attempted to scratch him on his finger, but it didn't even mark Cyclonus.

Starscream turned to the Mini-cons.

"Who started this?" he growled. The Mini-cons didn't say a thing. They were scared of what would happen if anyone had confessed.

"No one wants to take the blame, huh?" Starscream said, almost like reading their thoughts. "I'll just take one then."

He opened the doors and the Min-cons started to scatter. Starscream moved his hand above them like he was picking a baby chick out of a small pen. He saw what he was looking for a grabbed Sparkplug.

"Guys!" he screamed. "Help me!" Five Mini-cons lined up behind each other and pulled on Sparkplug's hands as they tried to break him from Starscream's hold. The Mini-cons fell backward as he yanked Sparkplug away from them and took Sparkplug away.

"Oh, man, that's not good!" said one.

"Prime's gonna ticked!" said another. All of the Mini-cons gave their own little comment on the situation. Jaeda stood up and walked over to a worried looking Jolt.

"What's wrong? What's going to happen to Sparkplug?" she said. Jolt looked over to her. His face was a lot different than it was before.

"He's a goner," he answered sadly.



"What was all the yelling about?" Demolisher moaned as he was still trying to wake up. Starscream placed Sparkplug in a small container that was made of electro-magnetic walls.

"The Mini-cons were fighting with Wasp," he said.

"Why?" Demolisher yawned.

"Don't know, and I don't care," Starscream answered, turning on the cage. The walls became bright purple and Sparkplug touched the walls, wondering if he should keep away from them. Fortunately, they didn't shock him, but the walls obviously couldn't be phased.

"I think Wasp started the fight," said Demolisher. "You know how he is by now."

"It's possibility," said Starscream, not caring. A look came across his face. He sighed.

"Thinking about Aria again?" said Demolisher. Starscream shot a death look at him. He grabbed his wing, pulled it out, and it shifted itself to look like a sword.

"Don't _ever _mention her again! Do you understand?!" said Starscream."Okay, okay!" Demolisher said, putting his hands up. "I won't!" Starscream glared at him and put his wing back. Demolisher left so he won't cause any more harm to him. Starscream sat down against the wall, thinking about the young Autobot female…

Back when Starscream had joined the Autobots, he saw Aria, one of the best fighting warriors in the Elite Guard. She was a jet much like Starscream. If you had stood them next to each other, they would almost be like brother and sister. As he spent more time with her, he felt things Cybertronians were never meant to feel. When they were together, Starscream had never taken his eyes off of her. And she never stopped smiling around him. If you asked Starscream or Aria what they liked better, being an Autobot or having a life, they would choose life. If the next question was "why?", they would answer "The one true friend I have found.".

Cybertronians never experience love, they weren't built to find out. So technically, Brainwave wasn't the first one from Cybertron to fall in love…

The time came where they were put in battle together. They fought against Megatron and a small band of other Decepticons. Once Aria came up from behind Megatron, she was ready to swing her swords at him.

But Megatron was faster.

He spun around and stuck his own sword through her spark chamber and she let out a deafening scream. Starscream turned around only to find Aria dead at Megatron's feet.

Starscream came back from his flashback as Cyclonus stepped in. He too put Wasp in a electro-magnetic prison. Separate from Sparkplug, of course.

"I don't that kid will ever listen to us," he said. He looked down at Starscream , still sitting on the floor. "You okay?"

"Aria," Starscream whispered. Cyclonus looked at him in understanding.

"Oh, I get it," he said. He walked towards the door. "I'll leave you alone." Cyclonus stepped.

Sparkplug looked at Starscream. He remembered seeing Starscream like that when he had left the Autobots to join up with the Decepticons. The only thing that was missing when he told Optimus he was leaving was Aria. Since then, he has accused Starscream of murdering her.

xXx

Author's Note: Maybe Starscream's past seemd a little overrated, but that's what went though my thought process. Poor guy...Anyone who wants to hug him, go ahead. I know every other fan-girl like me wants to 3 Sucks that Optimus accuses Starscream like that. And for the record, I mixed up Armada, Animated, and a little G1 when it comes to the characters

Hey, can anyone tell me if the Cyclonus I made was okay? I tried to base the D-cons on the Armada series, but I didn't think I could recreate Cyclonus's strnge sense of humor, so I combined mine with it.


	27. Breakout!

Chapter XXVII

"**Rock 'n' roll, boys! He's ready to go!" said Blackout, **finishing up the last touch to Rodimus, the flame paint job for extra effect. Brainwave smiled.

_Not yet. I need to input his spark._

"How are you going to do that?"

_With part of my own, and a little of George's hardware in the basement lab. _Brainwave ran in the house and came back with powered equipment. _This should do it. Once he's online, we won't have to teach him a thing._

"Thank Primus," said Blackout. The last thing he wanted to do was be a teacher for a newborn Cybertronian.

_Hook me up to the carburetor. _Brainwave handed Blackout some wires that were connected to the power points on his chest. Blackout obeyed his brother and plugged him in.

"I hope you know what you're doing," he said.

_Don't worry. I'm Perceptor's Mini-con after all._

"Touché," his brother replied. He stood back, waiting for something to happen. Brainwave hooked up the hardware to himself at his spark chamber lit up. The electricity flowed through the wires and into the Mustang's engine. It shook a little and Brainwave stopped the transfusion by unplugging the wires from his body. The car stopped shaking and started to speak.

"What a boost," it said. Blackout stared in amazement. He gave Brainwave a high-five.

"My brother, you're a slaggin' _genius_!" he said. Brainwave offered the high-five back and shrugged.

_I try._

"I am Rodimus," said the car. "What are your orders?"

Before Brainwave could say anything, Mike came running down to check up on them again.

"Yo, is my car done?" he asked.

"Right here, Mike!" said Rodimus. "Hey, can you get the skateboard out of my trunk? I think it's rusted."

"My car's talking!" Mike shouted. He ran to the back and opened up the truck to get out his black skateboard. He grimaced at it.

"Ew. It _is _rusted," he said, pulling the trunk back down. "So how is Rodimus going to help Jaeda?"

Blackout listened to Brainwave explain. He had to record it down to get it all.

"All right, here goes," said Blackout. "'I've programmed Rodimus to be a lot like Optimus Prime, our commander. With him, he could take down any Decepticon that lines up in front of him. He'll track down Jaeda and we'll be able to save her. Meantime, you're staying here.'"

"Not happening!" said George, coming into the garage. "My daughter is up in deep space. I'm going!"

"It's too dangerous," said Blackout. George grabbed his head and forced it down. "Ow! Ow! Ow!"

"Now listen, here, scrap for brains," Dr. Scotts growled. "That may be Brainwave's girlfriend, but that she's _my _daughter! Now, set me up with whatever I need to breathe up there and I won't disassemble you!"

"And I thought the _Decepticons _were bad news," Blackout mumbled. George let go of his head and stared at him. Blackout spoke to Brainwave in Cybertronian so George wouldn't eavesdrop.

_He can't come with us, Blackout. We've got one human trapped aboard the _Nemesis_, we don't need another to worry about._

_Brainwave, the doc has a point. There's a bond between father and child. And there's a very strong one with him and Jaeda. Plus, if we don't let him come, he'll kill me!_

Brainwave sighed. He looked over to George, who stared back looking like he was going to shout at any moment. _Fine. But he better not get lost, or in our way._

Blackout nodded and turned to George.

"You can come, just don't get in the way," he said.

"Close enough," said George. "Just give me whatever I need to survive there and I won't be a bother."

"I'll see what I can do."



Optimus Prime.

Leader of Cybertron and the Autobots. And he was here in the Milky Way galaxy. He was tracking down Brainwave's energy signature when he picked up at least thirty other Mini-cons' instead. Curious, he thrust the _Ark_, the Autobot ship, into full power and sped up. He soon got confused when he found Decepticon signals in the same spot as the Mini-cons'. He took a closer look out the scanner and spotted the most feared Decepticon warship known to any being.

"Megatron. Should've known he'd be here. Maybe Blurr was right…" he said. He slowed the ship down so he wouldn't be spotted. The scanners picked up another object. It was heading _towards _the warship.

"What kind of idiotic being would dare…?!"



"WHOO-HOO!" Mike screamed. Rodimus was transformed into his robotic mode, looking like Optimus' brother, but no face-mask and had a better looking paint job.

"Keep it down, will ya?" said Rodimus. "I'm trying to find a spot to get in!"

"Sorry," Mike said softly. He and his dad were each held in one hand while Blackout and Brainwave flew behind. George looked out beyond the _Nemesis_.

"What is _that_?" he said.

_Attention! Stand down! That is a Decepticon warship! You're no match for them!_

"What was that?" said Rodimus?

_That was Optimus on com-link!_ Brainwave activated his and tuned into the signal.

_Optimus! I can't believe you're here! It's me, Brainwave._

_Brainwave? Where's Perceptor?_

_We don't know. I think he's aboard the ship, along with Jaeda._

_Who's Jaeda?_

"Brainwave's girlfriend," Rodimus said with a sly smile.

_Will you shut up?!_

_All right, who's _that_?_

_His name's Rodimus. He's been online for about thirty cycles. I'll have to explain later._

_Please…_

_Right now we need to get to Jaeda and the Mini-cons aboard the ship! Think you can back us up?_

"Brainwave this is _Optimus _you're talking to!" said Blackout.

_Be happy to! Let's go beat some Decepti-clowns!_



"He's gone! Sparkplug's gone! He's done for!" said Hotwire. The Mini-cons were still panicking for their stolen friend. Jaeda hugged Jolt, trying to calm him down. When he was peaceful enough, she tried to get the others to feel the same. For some, a small kiss on the cheek and others a bear hug.

"Don't be so down-hearted, or down-sparked, whatever," said Jaeda. "Just crying about it won't help anything! I admit, I'm scared too. I want to get back home to my family. Is there anything you guys can try to get out?"

Te Mini-cons looked at each other, wondering which one had an idea. Jetfire and Jetstorm were the first to speak.

"Got it!" said Jetfire. "Melt the bars!"

"But, the bars are, like, fire-proof! The Decepticons wouldn't be so stupid!" Jetstorm replied to his twin.

"You didn't hear the rest. Your ability is wind, so-"

"I'll weather down the bars-"

"And I'll fire them up!"

"Brilliant, brother!"

Jetstorm's hands switched out and turned into turbos powerful enough to tear off the grass from the ground just by blowing. Jetfire's, for that matter, turned into torches. His brother aimed at the bars to the cage as the Mini-cons stepped back. Jolt held Jaeda tightly.

"Hold on to whatever you got!" the twins said in synch. Jetstorm fired up the turbines and blew down whatever he could off the bars. When he was done, he and Jetfire combined powers and the inferno from Jetfire's blast melted the bars in no time flat.

Cheers screamed out from every Mini-cons' voice. Even Jaeda's.

"Way to go, guys!" she shouted. The twins gave each other a high-five.

"BREAKOUT!" they screamed.



Rodimus met up with Prime in front of the entrance to the warship. Short introductions were given and they planned on how to break down the door. Optimus brought out a battle ax powered with so much energon it could take down the Sears building in a sweep. Rodimus took out a sword that was powered with the same amount of energon. They counted down the time.

"One…"

"Two…"

"THREE!" Mike finished for them. Optimus swung his ax and Rodimus stuck his sword through the door. It heated up the door and he made a circle in the door. Optimus took another swing when Rodimus was done and blew down the "door".

"Knock knock!" said Rodimus.

"Room service!" Optimus joked. Demolisher looked over at the intruders.

"Autobot alert! Autobot alert! Optimus is here, Megatron!" he said. He aimed his fingers (which were small guns) and his shoulder gun at the two. Rodimus dodged the attack and Optimus took the heat by blocking with his ax.

"Rodimus, take the Scotts and the Mini-cons down to the hold to get the others! I'll hold this cyber-clown off!" Optimus instructed.

"Yes, sir!" said Rodimus. He transformed and the father and son climbed in. Blackout and Brainwave ran behind as they entered the main room. Megatron was sitting in his throne, Starscream at his side.

"Who are you?!" he commanded.

"We've must've taken a wrong turn back there," said Mike. E and George got out of the car and Rodimus transformed. He held out his energon sword.

"The name is Rodimus! If you're gonna fight, bring it on, Decepti-creeps!" he shouted.

"Very well, then. Starscream?" Megatron's second-in-command knew this order all too well. He took out both of his wings and they turned into swords.

"Come get some, Auto-not!" he shouted. He pounced towards Rodimus and the Autobot blocked the attack with his sword. He pushed forward, sending the Decepticon backwards into the wall.

"Go find the Mini-cons! Go save Jaeda!" he said to Brainwave. He turned his attention back to Starscream. Brainwave grabbed Mike and Blackout took George by the hand. They dragged them across the ship to find the prison hold.

_Isn't there a map somewhere? _Brainwave shouted.

"What did he say?" Mike replied.



A crash sounded from above.

"What was that?" said Jaeda. The Mini-cons paused. They listened again for it and they heard another thump.

"You'll never take me alive, cyber-clown!" hey heard.

"Okay, that's _got _to be an Autobot!" said Reverb. "Come guys! We're out of here!" The Mini-cons gave out electronic cries of battle, like how Brainwave did when he got mad at Mr. O'Neil. They charged forward, breaking down whatever was left of the door.

"Whoa, hold the phone, man!" said a voice at the front. "Where's the fire?"

"I'll show you fire!" Jetfire said, igniting the torches.

"Don't you get it, this is a rescue!" Jaeda recognized the voice. She ran to the front, pushing the Mini-cons out of her way. She saw two members of her family, a Mini-con without hands and a face and-

"BRAINWAVE!" she screamed. The blue and golden robot smiled at her. Jaeda ran to him and gave him a hug. Brainwave wrapped his arms around her to give the hug back.

_Are you okay? Did they hurt you?_

"No time," said Blackout. "We got to go. Now! _Vamoose_!"

The Mini-cons didn't need any more instructions. They barged through them, almost scarring them against the walls. They passed by and Mike cracked his neck.

"Wow," he said. "Oil rush?"

Jaeda hugged Brainwave again, hoping it would last.

"Jaeda, we have to go," said her dad.

"I'll catch up," she said, not letting go of Brainwave. George motioned Mike and Blackout to get out of the room. They left, following the stampeding Mini-cons.

"Let's get the show on the road!" Mike shouted down the hall. Brainwave and Jaeda laughed.

"I kind of missed having that loon around," said Jaeda. "How bad did you miss me?"

_Enough to drive me completely insane. They treat you well here? How did you get here?_

"Apparently, Ken is working for the Decepticons. He stole me right from the backyard. He took me here and I spent the night with the Mini-cons."

_Any try to hit on you?_

"Not entirely. Jolt commented a bit. He said I was pretty and I think I might have blushed."

_Well, Jolt's got a great way with words._

"Yeah, so when I slept, he turned on his heating system and I slept next to him. Please don't tell me you're going to kill him, I already said I was going to introduce him to Tara!"

_At least I know they accept you. You didn't kiss him, did you?_

"No, he was just a bed for the night." She touched Brainwave on a power point on his chest and it hummed.

_Mmm… _Brainwave moaned. He stroked Jaeda's hair and kept her close to him. He touched her hair and stroked it.

_You feel softer than before._

"And you feel stronger," Jaeda replied.

_I guess I am, then._

Jaeda listened close to Brainwave as she put her head to his chest. His pulse wasn't like a human's heart beat; double beat. It was single.

_Boom…boom…boom…_

_What are you doing?_

"Listening." The beat sped up. "Hmm-hmm! Are you getting nervous?"

_Nah, I'm actually kind of comfortable. What about you? _Brainwave put his head to her chest. _Ha! Yours is going a million deca-miles per megacycles! Oops, miles per hour._

"Well, can you blame it?! Your head feels a bit too close!" said Jaeda. Brainwave laughed.

_You shouldn't. After all, we're dating._

"You mean, my dad said yes?"

_Yep._ He moved his head away and looked at Jaeda with love in each eyes. He moved closer and it happened.

He kissed her.

Jaeda had thoughts that she would pass out if this had ever happened to her. But, like Wasp's spell enhanced, she felt relieved. She placed her hands behind Brainwave's head and held the kiss. Brainwave wrapped his arms around Jaeda, one around her waist and another running through her hair, and held her close, almost lifting her off the floor.

She could feel Brainwave's energy flowing through her. The energon was amazingly strong and almost addicting to her. It surged through her body; arms, legs, head, every square inch of her being was filling and piling up on energon.

"Mm!" The energon started to pulse, and strongly. She pulled her head back for a second. "Brainwave, I-" He ignored her. He pushed his head forward to keep the kiss. He didn't want to back off. She pulled her head back again to try to finish her sentence.

"What are you-" Again, Brainwave put his lips to hers, and again Jaeda backed off. This time, she put her hand in front of his face to block the next kiss.

"What are you doing?" she said.

_Trying to merge. I want to be a part of you._

"Was that the surge I was getting?"

_Yeah. Do you mind?_ Jaeda put her hands back to where they were.

"Not at all, my Mini-con," she said. She forced herself upward to kiss him again. Both human and Mini-con held the kiss as long as they could, oblivious to the battle above them. The energon grew in them.

They began to glow.

xXx

Author's Note: Ho yeah! Rodimus! This was going throguh my head for about four days before I wrote it on Microsoft. I was typing like tomorrow was never gona happen and I finally started messing up a lot because I was typing too fast. So you know, Optimus isn't from the Animated, I just gave him the Animated energon battle ax.

Isn't that cool how suddenly Jaeda and Brainwave _both _begin to glow? I'm trying to make this as magical as I can, really.


	28. Self Destruction

Chapter XXVIII

**Once the moment was over, they released themselves **from the merge and looked at one another.

"I love you…" It was a whisper. Jaeda stared at Brainwave as his smile grew larger.

"You…You're first English words," she said, trying not to scream.

"We're together now, no matter what. Your spirit is mine and mine is yours," he said. He hugged her again and his head was over her shoulder.

"Who's been here?" he said.

"Ken, now a.k.a. Wasp. He kissed me a couple of times to try and get me to tell you where you were. At least none of them had left yet."

"How did kissing get you to tell?" he said, not understanding any of this. And thinking he might use the same trick one day.

"He's like some weird wizard now or something. Don't let him get to you," said Jaeda.

"Let's just get out of here. You can tell me everything later," said Brainwave. He pulled her hand and they ran down over to where they saw at least ten Mini-cons piled over Starscream. The Decepticon struggled to get them off, like trying to get off a couple of coach roaches.

"Get off!" he screamed. The Mini-cons held on as if life depended on it. A few were shaken off but they jumped back on. Jaeda looked on the opposite side of the room. A giant Cybertronian with a flamed paint job was stared in amusement at the Mini-cons tackling the jet.

"Who is that?" said Jaeda.

"That's Rodimus. Me and my brother, Blackout, made him last night. So, technically, that's your brother's car," Brainwave answered. Jaeda stared out to Rodimus in amazement. Her chin nearly came down to the ground.

"_That's _the Mustang?!" she shouted. Rodimus heard her and looked over.

"About time!" he said as he transformed. "Come on! Get in! Optimus said he rigged this place to blow in about five minutes!"

"Alright, just let me get the others out of here!" said Brainwave. He signaled to the Mini-cons on top of Starscream to get off. They obeyed as they saw him touch the points on his hands. Blue spheres of energon lit up and he waited for a good moment to shoot. Once the Mini-cons were off, Starscream looked over to Brainwave, and the blue and golden robot fired.

"Oh, slag," was the last they had heard from Starscream as the blast from the energon balls hit him on the spark chamber and sent him backwards into Megatron's throne. He laid across it and passed out.

"Okay, it's clear! Let's round it up! The ship's gonna blow!" Brainwave shouted. That was the only warning that they needed. They all crowded around each other and barged down the door. Brainwave and Jaeda jumped in the back seat of Rodimus as George and Mike stepped in the front. Brainwave grabbed a helmet from under the seat.

"Here, put this on," he said. Mike turned around.

"You speak now?" he said. Brainwave gave him a look. "Okay, now smooching in my car, you hear?"

"But you and Mariah is an exception, huh?" said George. "Remember, Mike, I see all, hear all, and know all that goes on around the house…plus Rodimus told me while you were hitting that big jet thing with the other ones."

Mike flushed pink and strapped on his seat belt.

"I don't mind Jaeda kissing a guy, especially since the boyfriend's trustable enough. It's _you_ I'm worried about." George strapped on his seat belt and Mike turned back to Brainwave.

"Hey, think you could hook me up with a girl Mini-con?" he asked.

"Sorry, Mike. There _is _no female Mini-con," Brainwave smiled. Mike swore under his breath and turned back around.

"Hold on!" said Rodimus, and shifted into full throttle. He led the Mini-cons over to the entrance where Optimus had just got done jamming the ships' controls.

"Move out, Autobots!" he said, and flew out the open door. Some of the Mini-cons transformed into either small jets or helicopters, and others stayed in their robot form, and flew out. Jaeda looked out the window just to get a glimpse of the Autobot commander.

"Is that-?"

"Yep, that's Optimus Prime," Brainwave answered. "He came over to save-" He stopped as a shocked look came over his face. "STOP!"

Rodimus put himself into a halt and Brainwave ran out. He touched the points on his feet and flew back inside the _Nemesis_.

"Brainwave, what are you doing?!" Jaeda shouted. He didn't hear her. He was too busy finding his way through the warship. George shoved her back into the car and Rodimus continued through the door and out the ship. Jaeda looked behind and waited for her lover to come back out. But it was too late.

The _Nemesis_ self-destructed.

"_BRAINWAVE_!" she shouted. Her eyes overflowed with tears. She saw through her blurred vision the fiery explosion. She didn't dare look back at her dad or her brother. She waited for Brainwave to come flying out of the burning debris and come to kiss her again.

No sign of life.

Just fire.

xXx

Author's Note: I nearly made myself cry with this. I still read it and I feel tear making it's way up. Oh, crap, hold on...*blows in tissue* Ah...Better. So, this ending was really sad. But if you want to know what'll happen next, read the epilogue, 'kay? *sniff* Dammit...*blows*


	29. Epilogue

EPILOGE

_What happened to the Mini-cons?_

The Min-cons became well known after they rendezvoused to Earth. They were sent to Washington D.C. to become citizens of not only America, but of Earth. They were allowed to go around as any other human being and they would be treated just the same. Most had received jobs in the science division, some in security, and others took on regular jobs like artist or dentist.

_What became of Rodimus?_

Rodimus was offered to go to Cybertron, to be in the Elite Guard. He refused though. Optimus told him he was welcome to Cybertron at any time he felt, and he would now be called Rodimus Prime. The second-in-command. Occasionally, while staying as Mike's car, he would tell George of what he and Mariah did, just do be sure he wasn't doing anything illegal.

_Did Tara and Jolt ever meet? What happened between them?_

Jaeda introduced Tara to Jolt, just like she had promised. They hit it off great and spent the most of their times together; married. They weren't able to have a child of their own, but they adopted a girl and named her Aurora.

_Did Brainwave survive?_

George did everything in his power to find Brainwave. He was sad to tell Jaeda that no evidence was found of his existence and Jaeda just cried until there were no more tears left in her. All of them had dried up on that day. But still, Jaeda never gave up the idea that he was still alive.

_What did Jaeda do with her life?_

She started out as a novelist, like she had said. She wasn't famous, but it was enough to put food on the table. In the publishing office, she met Ryan Garrison. They dated for four years and decided to get married. They had a boy and a girl; James and Amelia. Sometimes she would look at her kids and saw a bit of Brainwave in both of them. She never told Ryan about that time, and never would. She wanted to continue on, but Brainwave wanted to hold on to her thoughts. There were days where she could hear his voice at night and that would lull her to sleep. Soon, the day came where she could hear him no more, and she forgot.

Brainwave's last true words:

_My mind, my soul, my spirit and body is yours to keep, Jaeda. I love you and nothing will change my mind. Not even if Megatron held me at blaster point. Hmm-hmm! I love you, my brave heart. I'll be back, I swear it. We'll be together again. Count on it…_

xXx

Author's Note: What a guy, huh? Well, it's all real depressing, but get this: I MADE A SEQUEL TO IT! I figured since that if I could make a sad ending, I could continue writing. Let me tell you, the sequel is so awesome! I think it might be better than this story right here! So go to my page and get _Brainwave: Reunion _started!


End file.
